The rank effluvium of the male goat is well known, and that of certain male deer is wonderfully strong and persistent. On the banks of the Plata I have perceived the whole air tainted with the odour of the male _Cervus campestris_, at the distance of half a mile to leeward of a herd; and a silk handkerchief, in which I carried home a skin, though repeatedly used and washed, retained, when first unfolded, traces of the odour for one year and seven months. This animal does not emit its strong odour until more than a year old, and if castrated whilst young never emits it.[341] Besides the general odour, with which the whole body of certain ruminants seems to be permeated during the breeding-season, many deer, antelopes, sheep, and goats, possess odoriferous glands in various situations, more especially on their faces. The so-called tear-sacks or suborbital pits come under this head. These glands secrete a semi-fluid fetid matter, which is sometimes so copious as to stain the whole face, as I have seen in the case of an antelope. They are “usually larger in the male than in the female, and their development is checked by castration.”[342] According to Desmarest they are altogether absent in the female of _Antilope subgutturosa_. Hence, there can be no doubt that they stand in some close relation with the reproductive functions. They are also sometimes present, and sometimes absent, in nearly-allied forms. In the adult male musk-deer (_Moschus moschiferus_), a naked space round the tail is bedewed with an odoriferous fluid, whilst in the adult female, and in the male, until two years old, this space is covered with hair and is not odoriferous. The proper musk-sack, from its position, is necessarily confined to the male, and forms an additional scent-organ. It is a singular fact that the matter secreted by this latter gland does not, according to Pallas, change in consistence, or increase in quantity, during the rutting-season; nevertheless this naturalist admits that its presence is in some way connected with the act of reproduction. He gives, however, only a conjectural and unsatisfactory explanation of its use.[343]