404 Maine; agricxjIvTural eixperiment station. 1912. 



drawn from an oviduct which was actively secreting albumen 

 at the time the bird was killed. At that time there was an egg 

 in the albumen secreting portion about 8 cm. from the funnel 

 mouth. Consequently we may suppose that these gland cells 

 had been emptied of their contents very recently. In birds 

 which have not laid for a day or two these cells take a much 

 fainter stain. 



It will further be noted from figure 460 and 461 that the 

 nuclei of these gland cells lie well towards the inner or proximal 

 end of the cells. On the average these nuclei are considerably 

 larger than those of the ciliated cells. This is perhaps partly 

 accounted for by the larger volume of many of the gland cells. 



The shape of these invaginated glands varies considerably. 

 Probably the chief factor in determining their shape is the 

 mechanical one connected with the growth and the folding of 

 the epithelium. However, the type of gland shown in figure 

 461 is much more common tlian any other. On the lateral sides 

 of the gland the cells are much shorter while over the central 

 portion they are larger, forming a kind of hump in the center 

 of the gland pouch. The cells in this central region are nearly 

 the same length 'as the ciliated cells in the adjoining ridges. 

 These central cells also have much larger nuclei than the cells 

 nearer the sides of the pouch. As noted above this is probably 

 due to their larger volume. It also frequently happens in this 

 type of gland that one or the other side the gland grows out 

 into a rather long pouch or tube. This point is of interest in 

 connection with the development of the tubular glands which 

 will be described in the next section. 



Glands with other shapes also occur. One of these is shown 

 in figure 460. No evidence is at hand to show that these latter 

 glands differ from the ordinary t3^pe (fig. 461) in their his- 

 tological structure. 



So far as I know all previous students of avian oviduct his- 

 tology have stated that there are no glands in the funnel. Thus 

 Sacchi says in describing the funnel (p. 297) "mancano affatto 

 nelle pieghe le cellule di secrezione." Sturm ('10) apparently 

 >on the authority of Weidenfeld ('05) says "Der Trichter 

 sezerniert nicht." With this conclusion I must, most emphati- 

 cally, disagree. The cells described in the preceding paragraph 

 have every appearance of being gland cells. Further they are 



