MALE OKGANS OF KEPTILES. 



581 



stellate pigment-cells : in the Chameleon they give a Mack colour 

 to the gland. 



The short and outwardly extended legs of Lizards serve for 

 progression, not for support, and the animal rests with its belly 

 on the ground, as in Serpents : 

 hence the necessity not only for "S9 



the internal position of the testes, 

 but for the mechanism by which 

 the intromittent organs can be 

 inverted, and safely lodged out 

 of sight, in the base of the tail, 

 when not in use. 



In the Turtle {Chelone mi- 

 das) each testis is an elongate, 

 cylindrical, slightly bent body, 

 decreasing in size at the end next 

 the cloaca : the efferent tubes 

 leave it near the fore or upper 

 part of its concavity, and soon 

 join the vas deferens, which 

 forms a large and compact body 

 by numerous convolutions, situ- 

 ated between the testis and 

 kidney. Each vas deferens ter- 

 minates, with the ureter, in a 

 papilla, the sjoermatic orifice 

 being nearer the bladder. The penis is short, and is indicated, 

 in the unexcited state, chiefly by the urethral groove ; only the 

 glans and the pointed end of the fibrocartilaginous body imme- 

 diately above it jjroject from the cloacal surface, and these are 

 partly enclosed by a thick duplicature of the cloacal membrane, 

 representing a preputium : in the erection of the organ this fold 

 is everted and obliterated. 



In the Emys europaa the testes, fig. 390, y, and convoluted 

 siierm-duct, ib. c, are separated from the kidneys, ib. o, by the 

 peritoneum, which, after giving an entire investment to the testes, 

 is simply reflected over the contiguous surface of the kidney : 

 an artery, I, s, runs between the two glands. The testis presents 

 a full elliptic figure : its peritoneal covering is usually stained 

 with a dark pigment : x is the spermatic artery, z the spermatic 

 vein. The sjjerm-duct opens, close to the ureter, upon a papilla, 

 fig. 391, F, at the commencement of the urethral groove, ib. G. 

 The penis, in both freshwater and land Chelonia, is longer and 



Male nj-gniiB, Draco vohnis 



