120 Maine; agricultural experiment station. 1910. 



Fig. 80. Outline of the lateral aspects of the comb of the Barred 

 Plymouth Rock hen described in this paper. This outline is actual size. 



It is evident from these figures that the comb in this speci- 

 men greatly exceeds in size the average for females of the 

 variety. 



In regard to behavior this bird resembled a normal hen rather 

 more than a cock. She was never heard to cluck, however, or 

 to make any of the sounds which normal active hens make in 

 the course of the day's work. This bird probably never laid 

 an egg, though we are unfortunately not able to make an abso- 

 lute statement on this point. The egg records of the Station 

 show an egg to the credit of this bird on November 7, 1907. 

 This was the only egg ever recorded for this bird, and it is 

 undoubtedly an erroneous record. The condition of the sexual 

 organs was not such as to indicate that they had ever been 

 functional. 



Cockerels placed in the pen with this bird would try to fight 

 with her as if she were a cockerel, but she would not fight. 

 We have no evidence that a cockerel ever attempted copulation 

 with this bird. These facts are of interest in relation to the 

 Cjuestion of the basis of sex-recognition and the assortative 

 mating known to occur among fowls. Is a normal pullet with 

 an unusually large comb less likely to have her eggs fertilized 

 than a bird with a smaller comb? 



This bird was observed occasionally to take the position of a 

 cockerel about to crow and attempted to crow but never suc- 

 ceeded in very closely approximating the sound of a normal 

 cock bird. The bird was never seen to attempt to tread a hen. 



