38 GONADECTOMY IN RELATION TO THE SECONDARY 



EFFECT ON SPURS. 



There are contradictory statements in the Uterature regarding the 

 effect of castration on the spurs of the male, some observers having 

 even reported an absence of spurs in capons. All the capons reported 

 in this paper have well-developed spurs, but it by no means follows 

 that the observations to the contrary were incorrect, as in some nor- 

 mal cocks (Brahmas and similar races especially) the spurs are very slow 

 in developing. One White Plymouth Rock male at 15 months had not 

 developed a spur on one shank, while the spur on the other was very 

 small. As far as my own experiments and observations go, the capon 

 develops essentially the same amount of spur tissue as the cock. The 

 spurs of the capon, however, develop somewhat differently. They 

 become pointed soon after their eruption, and by the time they are 

 half an inch in length they have the form of a perfect cone instead of 

 the truncate cone of the normal male. Later they become indistin- 

 guishable from those of the adult male. 



The normal female is usually without spurs, yet hens that in all 

 other respects are perfectly normal, as far as outward appearances are 

 concerned, sometimes develop spurs. In such instances the spurs 

 may be of equal size on both shanks, symmetrical, and as long as those 

 of the male; or they may be small, irregular in shape, and equal or 

 unequal in size. In one individual observed, the left spur is a fine, 

 long specimen, while the right is small and irregular in shape, pro- 

 jecting scarcely more than 5 mm. from the shank. Such hens are 

 normal, at least as far as egg-production is concerned. The writer 

 has had at various times several hens with well-developed spurs and 

 has reared numerous chicks from them in the endeavor to produce a 

 race of birds in which each sex might be spurred. As yet this result 

 has not been secured, but that it is attainable is shown by the fact 

 that some strains of Leghorns and Minorcas produce a large percentage 

 of spurred female offspring. In one instance a Leghorn cock crossed on 

 some Plymouth Rock hens gave a progeny of which the females were 

 spurred in varying degrees. Thus, there is some indication that the 

 origin of normal spurred hens is to be found in their genetic constitutions. 

 The mere presence of spurs, then, is not necessarily to be taken as an 

 indication of the assumption of a male character any more than the 

 presence of horns in the female reindeer or domestic cattle is a similar 

 indication of an abnormal ovary. If, however, the functions of the 

 ovary as an organ of internal secretion is suspended, the spurs develop, 

 and this development may continue even after the functions have been 

 resumed. Well-developed spurs have been observed in all females 

 castrated in which the male plumage also developed, while in many of 

 those in which the assumption of male plumage was partial or tem- 

 porary the spurs started to grow. Several times they continued to 

 grow after the plumage reverted, and though they did not grow quite 



