64 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. XXII. No. 548 



the water repeatedly and drank. Presently B imitated him, and 

 he too drank repeatedly. Both pecked at white of egg held in 

 forceps, seizing at about the third shot, but shook it out of the 

 bill. Perhaps some was swallowed. I then put them to bed in 

 their basket. 



Two hours later they were taken out and waddled about with 

 more accuracy of motor coordination. When they came to the 

 water they both at once drank. They pecked at white of egg 

 placed on a black tray to make it more conspicuous, but shook it 

 out of their bills. 



After another two hours A was dropped into a fairly deep 

 bath. He floated and kicked vigorously, dropping excrement. 

 In less than a minute he swam round and round the bath and 

 pecked at marks on the side. 



A little later both made for the tin of water and sat in it. 

 They pecked with moi'e accuracy and without suggestion (i. e., 

 moving it about with ijin) at white of egg on the tray, still shak- 

 ing the head vigorously, but swallowing freely. A scratched his 

 head two or three times, but tumbled over in the process. 



Later in the evening of the same day they ate white of egg 

 freely. The pecking coordination was much more accurate, but 

 not quite accurate. I placed B in the bath. He kicked excit- 

 edly and dropped excrement; then swam about vigorously, peck- 

 ing at the sides. 



Next morning when taken from their basket both A and B 

 made for the water in their tin and drank and sat in it. They ate 

 keenly of white of egg, swallowing large morsels. Both scratched 

 their heads occasionally, tumbling down. Both preened their 

 down, rubbing their bills over their breasts. They applied their 

 bills to the base of the tail and rubbed their heads along their 

 backs in the most approved duck fashion. They stood up and 

 clapped their downy winglets, toppling over backwards on to 

 their tails from imperfect coordination. 



In the middle of the day I placed a blue-bottle fiy, from which 

 the wings had been snipped off, near them. A followed, pecking 

 at it, but failed to seize. It escaped under the newspaper which 

 formed the floor of my yard. I routed it out. A again followed 

 pecking, but the fly escaped through the wire netting. I placed 

 it again in the yard. A followed and caught it at the third peck, 

 swallowing it apparently with satisfaction. Put A in the basket. 

 B then caught another fly after numerous abortive attempts. 



Both A and B ate their own excrement and that of chicks, 

 showing less signs of dislike than do chicks. 



Tried the ducks with all sorts of odd things, bits of paper, 

 chopped-up matches, leaves, flowers, small stones, red currants, 

 anything of suitable size I could lay hands on. Each was seized 

 and mumbled, and then either rejected or swallowed. 



When three days old I threw to them the yellow and black- 

 banded caterpillar of the cinnabar moth. Each seized it, but 

 dropped it at once. Very soon no notice was taken of it. Next 

 day on repeating the experiment A seized a caterpillar, but 

 dropped it. B took no notice. They ate freely of green cater- 

 pillars from gooseberry bushes, and distinguished between these 

 nice morsels and the nasty yellow and black caterpillars. They 

 ate tadpoles placed in their water, noticing them directly they 

 began to swim about. 



I daily placed for them at about 9 a.m. in my experimental 

 yard a large black tray with a shallow tin of water. To this they 

 at once ran and drank, sitting in the water and washing. On 

 the sixth day I put down the tray and tin as usual ; but the tin 

 was empty. They ran to it, went through all the action of mum- 

 bling the water and drinking. They sat in the empty tin wag- 

 ging their little tails and ducking down their heads as if they 

 were enjoying a good bath. They continued this procedure for 

 about ten minutes. I then gave them some water. The next 

 morning I repeated the same experiment, but though the ducks 

 searched for water with their bills they did so with less vigor and 

 zest. 



A winged bee was thrown in. B seized it, but dropped it. A 

 seized it, and after mumbling it for a moment, swallowed it. Pos- 

 sibly he was stung. He kept on scratching the base of his beak 

 first on one side then on the other and seemed uneasy. But he was 

 all right again in half an hour. There was no instinctive avoidance 



of bees. Subsequently he would not touch a bee. There was an 

 intelligent avoidance of bees. Nor would they touch the bee-like 

 fly, Eristalis. Its mimetic form served as a protective character. 



Subsequently A seized a bumblebee and after mumbling it in 

 the water swallowed it and seemed none the worse. 



The above jottings are extracted from my note-book and are 

 given without comment. I may add that as compared with 

 chicks the ducklings show less intelligence and develop psychically 

 more slowly. Their greediness and vulgarity are painful to ob- 

 serve and to contemplate. 



BACTERIA IN HEN'S EGGS. 



BY MELVIN A. BRANNON, FORT WAYNE, IND. 



That cider should turn to vinegar and milk become sotir ex- 

 cites little wonder among common people or even individuals of 

 considerable education. The mere statement of fact in such or- 

 dinary phenomena seems to satisfy the masses, but fortunately 

 for scientific and sanitary interests, there is a class of individuals 

 persistently questioning such phenomena till reasonable explana- 

 tions are secured. Consequently the souring of cider and milk 

 was found to be caused by the presence of organisms which pro- 

 duced acetic and lactic acids, respectively, whenever the proper 

 medium was exposed in an atmosphere of moderate temperature. 



Not only have these common but interesting phenomena, 

 " souring " of cider and milk, been explained by the presence of 

 bacteria, but many other phenomena, less common and more 

 concealed, have been directly traced to the action of some form 

 of bacteria associated with the matter in which the phenomena 

 occurred. 



Of course, no intelligent student holds bacteria responsible for 

 every chemical change in organic matter, but it is well under- 

 stood and universally admitted that the greater number of chem- 

 ical changes in living and decaying organic material are induced 

 by some bacterial form. 



Eecognizing the importance of recording every phenomenon 

 relating to the presence and action of bacteria, it seemed proper 

 to recite to readers of Science some of the details in a very pecu- 

 liar case recently noted. 



An acquaintance whose intelligence and acuteness of observa- 

 tion make his testimony thoroughly reliable, stated that one of 

 his Plymouth Rock hens was laying eggs, every one of which 

 had an unpleasant odor, although broken a few hours after it was 

 laid. He also said that the hen was laying regularly and ap- 

 peared healthy in every respect save that she had the gaps. A 

 few days succeeding this statement he reported the fowl butch- 

 ered and closely examined. In her craw was found a ball of 

 threads pulled from manilla matting which she had access to. 

 The ball entirely filled the craw and was very hard and compact, 

 except in the central region, through which ran a cylindrical 

 opening, affording a passage-way for the food. This ball of 

 manilla threads and the craw gave the same offensive odor as did 

 the eggs when broken. The heart, liver and digestive apparatus 

 — excepting the craw — were normal in size and appearance. 



A perfect egg was taken from the hen and personally exam- 

 ined. It looked and smelled like a perfectly fresh egg, but when 

 broken it gave forth the same disgusting odor that had character- 

 ized her craw and previously laid eggs. This odor was exactly 

 like that observed in decaying meat, and, had the broken egg 

 been concealed, any person entering the laboratory would have 

 suspected that decaying meat was exposed in that room. 



The egg contents gave a strong alkaline reaction when tested 

 with litmus paper. The general appearance of yolk and white 

 was normal, but a portion of albumen mounted and carefully ob- 

 served under the microscope, magnification 250 diameters, re- 

 vealed the presence of a great number of bodies varying in shape 

 from almost round to distinctly oblong. These forms closely re- 

 sembled bacteria, but lack of time for tests and cultures made the 

 determination of them impossible. 



From these few observations and experiments it would be un- 

 scientific to definitely conclude that these eggs were decaying 

 from the action of bacteria, but in view of the fact that the odor 

 so closely simulated that of decaying flesh and that the egg con- 



