322 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



to bring all the manuscripts, records, and hundreds of illustrations 

 together in publishable form. The manuscripts and data on ' ' voice ' ' 

 and on "behavior" have been placed for compilation in the hands of 

 persons specially familiar with these subjects. The manuscripts on 

 the ''shifting of dominance of sex" are nearly ready for publication, 

 but the inaccessibility of certain materials has delayed completion. 



Confirmation has been obtained of the indications of the previous 

 year's work, to the effect that females of two grades of femininity 

 result from reciprocal crosses of Turtur orientalis and T. alba. More- 

 over, two further facts have appeared in behavior studies on the 

 females of this sex-controlled material : First, females hatched from 

 eggs ovulated in or near the male-producing season (spring and early 

 summer) are more masculine than their full sisters hatched from later 

 eggs of the season (in what has been shown to be the female-producing 

 season). Second, when two females are hatched from the same 

 clutch, it has been shown that in about three times in four the female 

 from the first egg of the clutch is the more masculine of the two, and 

 (in most pairs) will invariably take the part of a male in copulating 

 with such female from the second egg of the clutch. The results 

 strongly indicate that the hereditary basis of sex (and therefore, 

 probably all characters) is a quantitative, graduated thing; not 

 qualitative and alternative, as rather generally believed. 



Chemical and energy measurements on the male and female pro- 

 ducing ova of pigeons has this year been continued on 26 birds. In 

 addition, the total yearly output (on a basis of weight) of the ovaries 

 of 41 birds is being followed throughout the year. A volume dealing 

 with these data will probably be made ready for publication next year. 



Work on the storage metabolism of ova has progressed so far as 

 already to suggest certain chemical procedures which may render 

 practical, and greatly extend, the matter of experimental sex control 

 as it was obtained by Professor Whitman. Some preliminary experi- 

 ments to test these indicated methods of sex determination have been 

 undertaken, but it is as yet too early to report upon the results. 



