I08 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9I4. 



ity (or variability) of the egg cliaracters of an individual tends 

 to be general, but may manifest itself in different characters to 

 quite different degrees. 



6. A comparison of the relative degree of variation in the 

 individual and in the race shows that in general the eggs of 

 an individual resemble each other much more closely than do 

 a random sample of the eggs of the same strain. The eggs of 

 certain individuals, however, show a much higher percentage of 

 the variation of the race than those of some of the other indi- 

 viduals. In certain egg characters there is a general tendency 

 for the individual variation to approach more nearly the limits 

 of the race variation than in other characters. Finally certaui 

 characters may display a variation relatively greater in a par- 

 ticular individual than in the race. This indicates that the 

 egg characters are determined by an interaction of hereditary 

 and environmental forces which may cause a particular char- 

 acter to reach or surpass the racial limits of variation within the 

 eggs of one individual. 



INTRA-INDIVIDUAL VARIATION. 



The different degree of variation shown by the several egg 

 characters in each individual is also clearly seen. The four fol- 

 lowing relationships between the degree of variation in the 

 separate characters are clearly demonstrated, either by compar- 

 ing the average individual variation for each character taking 

 the group of birds as a whole, or by considering separately the 

 several coefficients for each bird. 



1. The egg varies more in re'Spect to zveight of shell and 

 zveight of yolk than in respect to any of the other characters. 

 A few individuals show significant differences between the 

 amount of variation in these characters. The eggs of som.i; 

 individuals vary more in respect to the one and some in respect 

 tc the other. 



2. Bgg zveight and albumen zveight are about equally zKiria- 

 ble. They are decidedly less variable than shell zveight and 

 yolk zveight and much more variable than either length ot' 

 breadth. The difference between the variation for these two 

 characters is significant for very few individuals. 



3. Both length and breadth are much less variable than any 

 of the zveight characters of the egg. 



