SECRETARY'S REPORT. 101 



that as the result of daily oliservations at a sheepfolcl of great im- 

 portance, that of the Dishley Mauchamp Merinos of M. Viallet at 

 Blanc, he has, if not deceived, obtained some new hints. He states 

 that Giron's law developed itself regularly at the sheepfold in all 

 cases where difference of vigor was observed in the ewes or rams 

 which were coupled ; but he adds another fact, which he had ob- 

 served every year since 185.S, when his observations began. This 

 fact consists — 1st, In that at the commencement of the rutting 

 season when the ram is in his full vigor he procl-eated more males 

 than females. 2d, When, some days after, and the ewes coming in 

 heat in great numbers at once, the ram being weakened by a more 

 frequent renewal of the exertion, the procreation of females took 

 the lead." 3d, The period of excessive exertion having passed, 

 and the number of ewes in heat being diminished, the ram also 

 found less weakened, the procreation of males in majority again 

 commenced. 



In order to show that the cause of such a result is isolated from 

 all other influences of a nature to be confounded with it, he gives 

 the details of his observations in a year when the number of births 

 of males and females were about equal. He also goes on to say, 

 that, " at the end of each month all the animals at the sheepfold 

 are weighed separately, and thanks to these monthly weighings, 

 we have drawn up several tables from which are seen the diminu- 

 tion or increase in weight of the diflerent animals classed in various 

 points of view, whether according to age, sex or the object for 

 which they were intended. 



Two of these tables have been appropriated to bearing ewes — 

 one to those which have borne and nursed males and the other to 

 those which have borne and brought up females. The abstract 

 results of these two tables have furnished two remarkable facts. 

 1st, The ewes that have produced the female lambs are, on an 

 average, of a weight superior to those that produced the males ; 

 and they evidently lose more in weight than these last during- the 

 suckling period. 2d, The ewes that produce males weigh less, and 

 do not lose in nursing so much as the others. 



If the indications given by these facts come to be confirmed by 

 experiments sufficiently repeated, two new laws will be placed by 

 the side of that which Giron de Bazareingues has determined by his 

 observations and experiments. On the one hand, as, at liberty, or 

 in the savage state, it is a general rule that the predominance in 



