REPTILES. 



Ihort, and the inferior plate goes forwards and becomes 

 broader, being turned up to form the rudiment of an epi- 

 glottis. 



The fame fimplicity of ilrudlure prevails in the tupi- 

 nambis, the common lizard, the tortoifes, and ferpents ; an 

 inferior plate, and two lateral pieces narrowing a little the 



1779, tab. i3;andTy(on that of the rattlefnake, in th? 

 Philof. Trani. vol. 13. The chorda; vocales, too, are lari'Cr 

 in the male than in the female frog. 



Voice nj Rcpula — The tortoifes and turtles are faid to 

 have the jjower of producing a more or lefs ilroiig hifling, 

 when affeded by any lively feeling ; but we do not know of 



edges of the glottis. Thefe animals c^n only be capable of any very clear and fatisiadtory teftimony on the fubjctt 

 producing hilling founds. Pliny's obfervation about the fnoring of turtles when float- 



The mud tortoife has, at the bottom of its organ, a ing aflecp o;.i the water, has not been confirmed. The lar-r. 

 rounded deprefiion, which is not fo well marked in the iguanas utter (harp whillWng or hilhng founds as they run 

 turtle ; but it has not any vocal chords. In a great land about the tops of trees. Several ferpents hits, and the larTL- 

 tortoife of Madagafcar, there is a triangular membranous fpecies very loudly. The noife made by the tail of the 

 crilta, attached to the lovi-er part of the larynx, and afcend- rattlefnake is not a vocal found, but produced" by a pe- 

 ing in the glottis, which it divides into two. This is ana- culiar organ, which we (hall defcribe. 



logous to a Itrufture very common in the upper larynx of Dandin aflerts, that falamanders produce two kinds of 

 birds. The edges of the glottis are flat, fharp on the out- feeble found out of the water j the lirft is a low found, pro- 

 fide, and touch completely. duced in the throat, which they fwell for that purpofc'; the" 



In the fcink, the edge of the glottis is turned a little fecond confids in a (light itrikiiig of the two lips together, 

 inwards to form a tenfe membrane, diredled backwards. v/ithout any motion ot the throat. 



In the camcleon there are pillars, nearly as in the croco- According to the traveller Bartram, crocodiles produce 

 dile, but they are each furnifhed with a tenfe membrane moil prodigious noifes. The found is terrific, particularly 

 direfted backwards, and very fit for vibration. In front of in the fprijig, when tliefe dangerous animals copulate. The 

 them, on each fide, a flefliy protuberance is obfervcd, con- noife refembles diltant thunder, (haking the country and 

 trafting the glottis, which is very (hort, and terminating making it re-echo far and wide. When they are thus bel- 

 in front by a tranfverfe (lit. But the molt remarkable cii-- lowing by hundreds and thoufands at a time, we mio-ht fup- 

 cumftance about the larynx of the cameleon, is a fmall pofe, fays Bartram, that fome violent fhock agitates the 

 membranous fac opening below, between the inferior plate globe, and (kakes it to its very foundations. He alfo dates 

 of the larynx, and the firlt ring of the trachea. that when they llrike their jaws together they make a fur- 



Neither the iguanas nor the dragons pofl'efs a fimilar fac, prifing noife, like that of a heavy plank forcibly beaten 

 although we obferve in them goitres on the outfide : againll the ground. 



thefe prominences have no relation to the vocal organs. Humboldt fays that the young crocodiles make a noife 



The frogs, which are fo noify, have a larynx fuitable to like cats ; and that they utter very piercing cries, juit after 

 this charaAer in the fize and prominence of its vocal chords, efcaping from the agg, if attacked by a doer. He never 

 The inferior plate of the larynx is a flender tranfverfe heard any vocal found produced by the old cTocodiles • al- 

 branch, bearing on each fide a large ring, which is the though he lived among them five years, and the fire often 

 origin of the bronchus ; for, in thefe animals there is no attracted them within" a few paces of the tents at night, 

 tracheal tube. On the front of the tranfverfe branch, two The Indians afferted that the crocodile makes a noife like 

 oval pieces are articulated, convex externally, and concave that of a cow ; that its voice is very terrific, but feldom 

 internally, fo as to refemble kettle-drums. On the lower heard, and fomctimes jull before an earthquake, the ap- 

 edge of each a membrane is itretched internally, which op- prbach of which they are faid to difcern. Recueil d'Obf. 

 pofes at right angles the courfe of the air. The edge of de Zool. et d'Anat. Comp. p. 11. 



this membrane forms the chorda vocalis, which is confe- Organs of the Generaii-ve Funaions. — There is a very clofe 

 quently more ifolated than the cartilages, and freer than in analogy in the {Irufture of thefe parts between reptiles and 

 any other animal. Above it is the opening of the ventricle birds : in both clafics there is a cloaca, that is, a cavity com- 

 of the glottis, occupying all the concavity of the -kettledrum mon to the generative organs, the feces, and the urine • in 

 cartilage. The upper edge of this cartilage forms the both the male has tellicles inclofed in the abdomen, while 

 margin of the glottis properly fo called. Vicq' d'Azyr the female organs confift of ovaries and ovidufts. The 

 conceived that the ventricles communicate by their bottom young being leaves the mother in the form of a fmall eg-g- 

 with the bronchi, and tluis afcribed three openings to the which is generally developed out of the body. The eene- 

 larynx of frogs : but this is a miftake. rative procefs, however, in many inftances, exhibits in this 



Befides this apparatus, which is extremely fonorous, male clafs very driking peculiarities, 

 frogs have two bags, each of which opens by a fmall hole, Male Organs.— The tejlkks : the fituation and drufture of 



not in the larynx, but in the bottom of tiic mouth, at its thefe glands in the three fird orders are very analogous to 

 fides. They pafs under the arch of the lower jaw, to make thofe which they have in birds. They are condantly found' 

 a prominence under the (Icin on each fide under the ear. in the abdominal cavity, united to the inferior furface of the 

 Thefe bags are didended when the frogs are croaking, kidnies (in the chelonians), in front of the latter vifcera on 

 They are covered by a mufcular tiSTue capable of compreffing each fide of the vertebral column ( in the fauriaiis and ophi- 

 them. The female frogs, and toads of both fexes, and the dians), or immediately under their anterior portion (in the 

 tree-frogs, are deditut- of the bags ; but the latter have a fim- batracians). Their form varies in the different genera- 

 pie fac under the throat. In this larynx there is a mufcle on they are fcparated, in the falamanders, into two fpherical 

 each fide to feparate the oval cartilages ; and a tranfverfe one bodies, placed one before the other. 



in front, paffino: between them, and calculateil to approximate The kidney, teflis, and epididymis, lie clofe too-ether iii 

 them. For reprefentations of thefe laryngeal lacs in the the tedudines, according to Blumenbach ; but each of the 

 frog, fee the German colledion of Camper's fmaller writ- three organs maybe didinguilhed by its peculiar colour and 

 ings, vol. I. pt. I. pag. 144. tab. 3. fig. I — 4. Vicq drufture on the fird view. There is much obfcurity in 

 d'Azyr has reprefented the rima glottidis of the tortoife, the different defcriptions of the male organs in the turtle 

 frog, and ferpents, in the Memoires de r Acad, des Sciences, and tortoife. Schneider has collected the various obfer- 



5 B 2 vations 



