168 Blood Fat in Fowls 



Birds with yellow beaks, legs, and vent, X = 23 

 r /e = 0.41 1 -0.117* 



Birds with pale beaks, legs, and vent, N = 18 

 r fe = + 0.532 0.114 



* This is the value obtained by using only the twenty-three 1 year 

 birds included in Table VII of Warner and Edmond. If the nine 3 yean 

 birds which they have lumped with these are included the correlation 

 r = - 0.332 0.106. The correlation for the nine 3 year old birds ali 

 isr = -0.021 0.225. 



The results are the same in sign but numerically larger th 

 the coefficients based on the actual record concerning laying . 

 tivity. They point to the same conclusion; namely, that wl j 

 birds are in the actively laying condition there is a positive ( 

 relation between annual egg record and per cent of fat in the blc ^ 

 but that after the egg-producing capacity of the bird has been -j 

 hausted, there is a negative correlation between egg record and j 

 amount of fat in the blood. 



If this is true, one might expect the correlation to change v I 

 the lapse of time since laying. This point may be tested y 

 splitting the data of Warner and Edmond into groups accorc g 

 to the number of days since laying to the time the blood san^fl 

 was taken, and determining the correlation between fat contjj 

 and egg production in each of these groups separately. We fir 



For birds laying at time blood sample was taken, N = 16 

 r fe = + 0.351 0.148 



For birds which had not laid for from 1 to 24 days, X = 16 

 r fe = +0.054 0.168 



For birds which had not laid for from 25 to 29 days, X = 22 

 r fe = -0.132 0.141 



For birds which had not laid for from 60 to 365 days, X = 

 r/e = -0.620 0.103 



Thus, as suggested above, there is a progressive change in le 

 nature of the correlation between fat content and total eg e- 

 cords which is positive for birds in a laying condition, sink to 

 zero after the cessation of laying, and finally takes a high negs /e 

 value in birds which have long since ceased to lay. 



