REPORT ON THE SPHENISCID.-E. 219 



Female Organs. 



The Ovary (PI. XVII. fig. 8). — As is the case in the majority of birds, the right ovary 

 in the Penguins is entirely absent. That on the left side, on the other hand, is well 

 developed. In Eudyptes chrysocome it measures 1 inch in length, and ^ an inch in 

 greatest breadth. It lies in contact with the lower surface of the left kidney, and 

 to some extent overlaps the anterior margin of that organ. The ovary in its immature 

 condition consists of a mass of capsules, which vary in size from that of a pin-head to 

 that of a small garden pea. In the ovary of one specimen of Eudyptes chrysocome I 

 counted 120 of these capsules. The ovary is covered on its lower surface by a layer of 

 peritoneum, and lies in contact with the dilated extremity of the left oviduct. 



Tlie Oviduct of the right side, like the corresponding ovary, is functionally useless. 

 In several species of Penguin, however, I was able to corroborate the observation of 

 Stannius,^ that in the Penguins, as in certain other birds, a portion at least of the right 

 oviduct persists throughout life. 



The extent to which atrophy takes place appears to vary in different species. In 

 Eudyptes chrysocome I failed to distinguish the slightest trace of the right oviduct, while 

 in Eudyptes chrysolophus that structure was represented by a fibrous cord, which extended 

 from the cloaca forwards, as far as the posterior border of the kidney. In Aptenodytes 

 longirostris, again, the right oviduct was represented by a slender fibrous cord, which was 

 traceable from the cloaca to midway between the cloaca and the posterior border of the 

 kidney. It would appear, therefore, that in the Penguins, as in other birds, the oviduct 

 of the right side, although present in a fully-developed condition in the embryo, becomes 

 gradually atrophied, and that this atrophy takes place from before backwards. This opinion 

 is confirmed by the fact that in the female of every species of Penguin the place of 

 entrance of the right oviduct into the cloaca is represented by a well-defined but small 

 nipple-shaped papilla, which occupies a position in the cloaca similar to that occupied in 

 the male by the vas deferens of the same side. 



The left, or functionally active oviduct (PL XVII. fig. 8), lies in contact with the lower 

 surface of the left kidney, to wliich, as weU as to the superior abdominal wall, it is 

 attached by means of a double fold of peritoneum. In the mesentery I failed to find 

 any trace of muscular fibres.^ In addition to this membranous fold, the anterior extre- 

 mity of the oviduct is connected by means of a fibrous band or ligament to the connec- 

 tive tissue covering the base of the left lung. According to Owen,^ this ligament in the 

 common fowl takes an attachment to the penultimate rib. Such is not the case in any 

 species of Penguin, in every one of which it blends with the fibrous tissue surrounding the 



' Stannius, quoted by Milne-Edwards, Legons sur la Physiologie Comparee, vol. \'iii. p. 512. 



- According to Owen (Cyclopaedia of Anatomy, vol. i. p. 357), the mesentery of the common fowl is muscular in 

 character. 



2 Loc. cit., p. 357. 



