78 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



AN ESSENTRIC HEN, ANATOMICALLY EXCUSED 

 A. F. Reiter, 1921. 



A little black mongrel hen, so active that fences were no 

 barrier to her range, decided to settle down to incubation. She 

 was encouraged in this by receiving a setting of eggs which she 

 carefully brooded. She hatched her brood and mothered them a 

 few days when she turned cannibal, killing and eating her whole 

 flock of chickens within a few hours. The hen was then allowed 

 to feed with other chickens for about ten days when she was 

 slaughtered. The hen was found to have two complete systems of 

 ovaries and oviducts. In one was found eggs in all stages of 

 development up to egg in shell. In the other were eggs up to the 

 size of a pea. 



Evidently the hen hatched her brood when both ovaries were 

 inactive. With the beginning of active life in caring for her brood 

 one ovary began developing eggs which gave the hen the impulse to 

 wean her brood, her mother instincts being satisfied with egg in 

 duct. In trying to wean her chickens she killed one and ate it, 

 which developed her, canabalistic habits, which were not satisfied 

 until the last chick was devoured. Alaying hen does not care to 

 h- annoyed with a brood of chickens following her. 



