XII. 
REPTILES. 
29 
colour ; nor do I know tkat the males fight together, 
though this is probable, for some kinds make a prodi- 
8’ous display before the females. Bartram 47 describes 
male alligator as striving to win the female by 
splashing and roaring in the midst of a lagoon, “ swollen 
(( t° an extent ready to burst, with his head and tail 
{£ fitted up, 1 16 spins or twirls round on the surface of 
tlle water, like an Indian chief rehearsing his feats 
. °f War.” During the season of love, a musky odour 
Js emitted by the submaxillary glands ot the crocodile, 
llt| d pervades their haunts. 48 
^phidia . — I have little to say about Snakes. Dr. 
■fintlier informs me that the males are always smaller 
man the females, and generally have longer and slen- 
<erer tails; but he knows of no other difference in 
eternal structure. In regard to colour, Dr. Gunther 
? au almost always distinguish the male from the female 
: v ll4 s more strongly-pronounced tints ; thus the black 
''•gzag hand on the back of the male English viper is 
m °re distinctly defined than in the female. The differ- 
!? lCe is much plainer iu the Rattle-snakes of N. America, 
p' e lna le of which, as the keeper in the Zoological 
mvdens shewed me, can instantly be distinguished from 
le female by having more lurid yellow about its whole 
0cl y- In S. Africa the Bucephalus capensis presents an 
‘^alogous difference, for the female “ is never so fully 
vari e g a ted with yellow on the sides, as the male.” 43 
le male of the Indian Dipsos cynodon, on the other 
hand. 
is blackish-brown, with the belly partly black, 
I , '-'‘uivuvicjii ui w u ujhi J j 
mst tlie female is reddish or yellowish-olive with the 
} either uniform yellowish or marbled with black. 
■13 ‘T'avels through Carolina,’ &c., 1791, p. 128. 
« ‘ Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. i. 1866, p. 615. 
hlr Andrew Smith, Zoolog. of S. Africa : lteptilia,’ 1819, pi. X. 
