1910.] CUTAXEOUS SCENT-GLANDS OF RUMINANTS. 975 



up the tail in flight, so common in Ruminants, woukl expose tlie 

 secretion of these glands to the air. 



It has also been suggested, by Owen for example, that the use 

 of the secretion of the pedal glands is lubrication of the hoofs. 

 This is possible. The suggestion, however, does not exclude the 

 explanation tulvocated above ; and it appears to me to be probaljle 

 that the function of the secretion of tiie pedal glands is the same 

 as that of the cai-pal, tarsal, and metatarsal glands, which cannot 

 be for lubrication. In this connection it is significant that 

 uEpijceros ami Tetraceros, which have no pedal glands, have very 

 specialised glands on the hind legs, occurring in the former above 

 and in the latter within the false hoofs, in situations, that is to 

 say, where the secretion must taint the ground where the animal 

 lies. 



There is a good deal of evidence that the preorbital gland has a 

 sexual significance, at all events in part. Bennett, for example, 

 noticed that an immature example of Jniilope cervicapra had the 

 lips of the sinus small and closely applied, so as to hide entirely 

 the internal lining of the sac. In a full-grown animal, on the 

 contrary, the sac, under the influence of excitement, was everted 

 so as to form a projection rather than a hollow. At such times 

 the animal delighted to rub the sac against any substance offei-ed 

 to it, loading it with the secretion, which had a slightly urinous 

 odour. In a castrated individual, believed to be about the same 

 age as the last, the gland, on the contrary, was only developed to 

 the same extent as in the young male and was never everted as in 

 the normal adult buck (P. Z. S. 1836, pp. 35-36). Hodgson also 

 believed that in the Serow ( Cwpricornis thai-) the gland was " con- 

 nected with the generative organs " ; for he noticed that, in the 

 spring especially, a thin viscid secretion was constantly poured out 

 from the sinus, and he suggested that this prof use secretion was a 

 means of relieving the animal during the time of extraoixlinary 

 excitement to which it is liable in the breeding-season (P. Z. S. 

 1836, p. 39). Max Weber, moreover, has collected a good deal 

 of evidence showing that the preorbital gland is better developed 

 in the male than in the female of the many species of Antelope. I 

 have noticed this myself in the case of Eaphicerus campestris and 

 Tetraceros qifjadricornis. I have also obsei'ved the glands of the 

 latter species enlarge and discharge copiously in the summer, and 

 those of specimens of Gazella 7-ufifrons and Cephalojyhus dorscdis 

 to be markedly swollen at that season. I have also seen them 

 dischai'ging actively in July in a female example of Sylvicapra 

 cp-inimi, and to be quite inactive in the same aiaimal in August. 

 jMoreover, in some Deer {Pseudaxis and Hucerviis) I have noticed — 

 and this is possibly true of all Deer — that the preorbital gland is 

 quite small and shallow in the young as compared with the 

 adult, a fact warranting the conclusion that this gland attains its 

 greatest size and activity with sexual matuiity. 



But I cannot, on the evidence, bring myself to believe that the 

 significance of the preorbital gland is wholly sexual. It is certain, 



