VISCERA. 51 



ablj exceeds tliat of the abdominal cavity. The hings 

 are smallest in Discoglossus, measuring only about half 

 the length of the abdominal cavity in males. 



The liver is divided into three lobes, one on the 

 right side, two on the left. 



The kidneys are elongate, flattened, red bodies 

 attached to the dorsal body-wall, close to the middle 

 line, below the vertebral column ; from them the ducts 

 or ureters proceed to the cloaca, into which they open 

 by two small closely approximated apertures opposite 

 the opening of the urinary bladder. 



In the males the testes lie at the inner side of and 

 ventrally to the kidneys, connected with them (except 

 in the Discoglossldpe) by a number of delicate ducts, 

 vasa efferentia, which convey the spermatozoa into the 

 tubules of the kidneys, from which they escape by the 

 ureter. The male reproductive organs differ consider- 

 ably according to the species ; and the testes, which 

 are not always symmetrical, vary according to the 

 season and the individual, so that little importance 

 can be attached, from the systematic point of view, to 

 their size, shape, and pigmentation.* 



The ovaries in the female correspond to the testes 

 in the male. The oviducts are long, much-convoluted 

 tubes, with thick gelatinous walls, in which the ova as 

 they descend become coated with their mucilaginous 

 envelope; their open mouths are situated close to the 

 roots of the lungs, and their lower ends, much dilated, 

 have often been termed, improperly, uterus ; the ovi- 

 ducts open, together with the ureters, into the cloaca. 



In both sexes two tufts of flattened yellow or orange 

 fatty appendages, the corpora adiposa, are attached 

 above the genital glands. They vary much in size, 

 according to the season, and are most developed just 

 before the breeding period. I have seen them of a 

 vermilion red in breeding specimens of Bitfo calamita. 



* I have examined a breeding male, Bufo vulgaris, -whose right testicle 

 was uniformly yellow, whilst the left was closely pigmented on about 

 two-thirds of its surface. 



