Sept. 18, 1916 



Dwarf Eggs 



1017 



of which were more than 1 cm. in diameter. There were no visible dis- 

 charged follicles. The bird was evidently approaching another cycle of 

 egg production. The oviduct was nearly the size of an oviduct in a laying 

 bird of the same body weight. The organ had but one abnormality. 

 Six cm. from the mouth of the funnel were two constrictions, separated by 

 about 1 cm. of duct, with the same diameter as the rest of the albumen 

 region. The finger could be pushed through these constrictions. There 

 was no pathological appearance in the duct wall at these points. It 

 seems probable, however, that these constrictions prevented the passage 

 of the normal egg, but allowed the passage of a smaller body, as the begin- 

 ning of the dwarf egg. No yolk was found in any of the dwarf eggs pro- 

 duced by this bird. The nucleus in each of three cases was one or 

 more small lumps of coagulated albumen. The dwarf egg produced on 

 November 21 contained a small-stalked hard-shelled dwarf egg. The 

 entire egg weighed only 1 1 . 1 gm. Neither the outer nor inner egg con- 

 tained any yolk. 



Table XXVIII. — Egg record of case l. a 



a " 1 " denotes a normal egg, " i- " a dwarf egg, "n" a visit to the trap nest but no egg, and " D " date 

 killed for data. 



Case 2 was that of another good layer which suffered a permanent 

 disturbance, which hindered the production of normal eggs, but per- 

 mitted dwarf-egg production. The case history of this bird follows. 

 She began to lay on September 3, 191 3. From this time until she stopped 

 laying for the first molt, on October 5, 1914, she laid 218 eggs. On 

 November 6, 1914, while the bird was still in nonlaying condition, three- 

 fourths of her ovary was removed by a surgical operation. She began 

 to lay again on December 29, 1914, and from this time until July 8, 

 1915, she produced 128 eggs. Three days later, July 11, she produced 

 a dwarf egg. This was the first of a series of 7 dwarf eggs, the last of 

 which was produced on July 23. Then followed an 8-day nonproduc- 

 tive period followed by a clutch of 3 normal eggs, on July 31 and Au- 



