326 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I916. 



3. Dwarf eggs may be classified as yolkless, free yolked, 

 or small yolked according to the yolk content. 



4. Of the 274 dwarf eggs opened 35.03 per cent, were yolk- 

 less and 64.96 per cent, or nearly two-thirds contained yolk. 

 The yolk was enclosed in membrane in only 9.85 per cent, of 

 the dwarf eggs opened, while free yolk was present in 55. ti 

 per cent, of these eggs. 



5. Dwarf eggs with small yolks while distinctly smaller 

 than normal eggs are significantly larger than dwarf eggs with 

 little or no yolk. 



6. A comparison of the relative size of the several groups 

 of dwarf eggs, normal eggs, double-yolked and triple-yolked 

 eggs furnishes a continuous line of evidence that the amount of 

 albumen secreted depends to a large extent at least upon the 

 degree of immediate stimulation due to the amount of yolk 

 present. 



7. Dwarf eggs with small yolks have shape indices which are 

 higher than those for normal eggs and lower than those for 

 other prolote spheroidal dwarf eggs. These differences in index 

 in the three groups are the reverse of the differences in size. 



8. This negative correlation between the shape index, and 

 size extends the evidence from former researches that the 

 smaller the egg the broader it is in proportion to its length. 



9. Dwarf eggs of each class are exceedingly variable when 

 compared to normal eggs. This greater variation occurs in 

 all the physical characters measured, i. e., length, breadth, shape, 

 index, egg weight, yolk weight, shell weight and possibly albu- 

 men weight. 



10. Dwarf eggs with small yolk resemble normal eggs in 

 degree of variability as well as in size and shape more nearly 

 than do other classes of dwarf eggs. 



11. The several size characters show different degrees of 

 variation. They may be arranged from most to least variable 

 as follows : egg weight, length and breadth. This arrangement 

 is the same for dwarf and normal eggs. 



12. The interrelation of the size and shape characters in 

 prolate spheroidal 22 dwarf eggs of each class is as follows : 



"The same relations apparently also hold for cylindrical dwarf eggs 

 but the • number observed was too small to determine the degree of 

 relationship. 



