the bill is very great, and therefore that it anfwers the purpofe o f a
hand, and is capable of nice difcrimination in its feeling.
The eye is very final],-and is nearly fpherical. There is a mem-
brana niftitans; and the eyelid is very loofe upon the eyeball: it is
probably capable of great dilatation and contraction.
The membrana tympani is larger than in other quadrupeds of
the fame fize.
The organs of generation in this animal have feveral peculiarities
o f a very extraordinary nature.
The male organs do not appear externally ; fo that the" diftin-
guifhing mark o f the fex is the fpur on the hind leg.
The tefticles are fituated in’ the cavity1 o f the', labdomen, immediately
below the kidnies : they are large_for the fize-of the' animal.
The epididymis is connected with the body of the tefticle by
a broad membrane, which admits of its -lying very loofe.
' The penis in this animal doés not, as in other qua Irupeds, give
paffage to the urine. It is entirely appropriated to the purpofe o f
conveying the femen ; and a diftinCf canal conducts thé -urine into
the reCtum, by an opening about an inch from the external orifice' pf
the inteftine. The gut at this part is defended from the acrimony
-of the urine, by the mucus fecreted by two glands, which, probably
for this reafon, are very large in the male, but fmall in the female.
The penis is fliort and fmall in its relaxed ftate ; and its body
does not appear capable o f be:ng very much enlarged when erëCted.
The prepuce is a fold -of the internal membrane o f the verge" of
•the anus, as in the bird; and the penis, when retraCled, is entirely
concealed.
The glans penis is double ; one . glans having its extremity directed
to the right, the other to the le ft: and as they fupply two
diftinCt Cavities with femen, they may be confidered as two penifes.
This is-an approach to the bird kind, many fpecies'of which have
two. There was no appearance o f veficulae feminales. -
The
The female drgans open into the reCtum, as in the bird. The
vagina is i lj inch long : its internal membrane is rugous, the rug®
being in a longitudinal - direction. At the end o f the vagina,
inftead of an os tine®, as in other quadrupeds, is the meatus uri-
narius; on each fide -of which is an opening leading into a cavity,
refemblrng the horn o f the uterus in the quadruped, only thinner
in its coats. Each of thefe cavities terminates in a fallopian tube,
which opens, into the capfule of an ovarium. The ovaria are very
fmall ; they were not in a very perfeCt ftate of prefervation, but bore
a general refemblance to thofe of other quadrupeds. .
This ftruCture of the female organs is unlike any thing hitherto
met with in quadrupeds ; fince in all o f them that I examined, fays
Mr. Home, there is the body of the uterus, from which the horns
go off as appendages. The opoflurn differs from all other animals
in the ftruCture.of thefe parts, but has a .perfectly formed uterus;
nor can I fuppofe it wanting in any of the clafs Mammalia. •
This animal having no nipples, and no regularly formed uterus,
Mr. Home fays, he was led to examine the female organ in birds,
to fee if there was-any analogy between the oviduCts in any of that
c]afs, and the two membranous uteri of this animal; but none could
be obferved ;T nor would it be eafy to explain how an egg could
lie in the vagina to receive its ihetl; as the urine from the bladder
muft pafs,direCtly over it. Finding they had no refemblance to
the oviduCts in birds, Mr Home was led to compare them with the
uteri of thofe lizards which form an egg, that is afterwards: deported
in a cavity correfponding to the uterus o f other- animals-,
where it is hatched ; ’which lizards may therefore- be called ovi-
viviparous ; and 1 find, fays Mr. Home, a very clofe refemblance
between them. In thefe lizards there are- two uteri, that open
into one common canal, or vagina, which is extremely fhort;
and the meatus urinarius is fituated between thefe openings. The
coats of thefe uteri are thinner tha,n thofe of the uteri o f quadm-
peds of the fame fize.
In