POULTRY NOTES — 1909. 



121 



Anatomical study of this bird showed that on the left side 

 of the body were organs normal to a female (ovary or egg 

 cluster, and oviduct or egg tube). On the right side were 

 organs like those normal to a male (testicle and vasdeferens — 

 the tube which conveys the spermatozoa from the testicle to 

 the outside). Microscopic examination showed that neither the 

 male nor the female organs had probably ever been functional. 



The appearance of this hermaphrodite is shown in Fig. 81. 

 Anteriorly the bird was male in its external characters; pos- 

 teriorly it was female. The truth of this statement may be 

 demonstrated in a striking manner by placing the edge of an 

 opacjue.card along a line connecting the letters a and b in Fig. 

 81 and turning the card about this edge as an axis so as to 

 expose alternately the. anterior and posterior parts of the bird. 



Fig. 81. Hermaphrodite Barred Plymouth Rock. 



When the card covers the posterior part of the bird what one 

 can see ( /. c, the anterior part) is unmistakably and indubitably 

 male. On the contrary, when the anterior part is covered by 

 the card, what of the bird is then to be seen is equally unmis- 

 takably female. The "maleness" and '"femaleness" of these 

 two portions of the body extend to the most minute details of 

 structure, perhaps not apparent to anyone not perfectly familiar 



