20 Jeffries on an HermaphrodUe Bird. [January 



nerves. The substance of the testicle had evidently undergone 

 considerable loss and by no means filled up the tunica albuginea. 



When picked to pieces the substance of the gland was found 

 to consist of rather small coiled tubes — the tubuli seminiferi. — 

 blood-vessels and nerves. The tubes were naturally much de- 

 cayed and went to pieces at the slightest touch. They stained 

 but poorly with any reagent. The tubules were carefully exam- 

 ined with a high power for spermatozoa. No satisfactory evidence 

 of their existence could be discovered, though two or three bodies 

 which may have been developing spermatozoa were found. The 

 histology of the tubules themselves seemed perfectly normal. 



The blood-vessels, which entered with the vas deferens, 

 branched and split up into capillaries which extended out to the 

 surface of the organ. 



In closing the description I would sa}- that great care was taken 

 to guard against all possible mistakes of identification, caused by 

 diseased growth, remains of embryonic structures, or malforma- 

 tions, also that the testicle did not present the slightest resemblance 

 to a modified right ovary ; the true nature of the gland was 

 undoubted. 



There can therefore be no doulit but that the specimen is a 

 perfect example of lateral hermaphroditism, the left side being 

 like that of a normal female, and the right very much like that of 

 a normal male, the abnormal condition of the kidney very likely 

 explaining the slight change in relations of the genital and urinary 

 ducts. That no spermatozoa were found does not prove the tes- 

 ticle to have been functionless, since the period of rut had not 

 commenced. This of course assuming that no spermatozoa 

 were found — a point I cannot positively assert — and that spermato- 

 zoa would have l:)een found had they existed in the gland. Consid- 

 ering the decaved state of the gland, I doubt if the latter condition 

 would hold good. * 



Similar cases are very rare and but three have, so far as I 

 know, been reported for birds, while Qiiain's Anatomy* in 

 referring to man, reads as follows : ^ Extremely rare forms 

 referable to the possible coexistence of the productive parts of 

 testicle and ovaries in the same individual, usually combined 

 with more or less of the foregoing kinds of malformation." This 



* Quain's Anatomy, Eighth Edition, Vol. II, p. 825. 



