Chapter xxxyiil 



EO-O-S -SJfcTO liTOXnBJL.TIOlSr. 



Generation of the Egg — Physiology op Incubation — Natural Incubation — 

 Convenient Hens' Nests — Egg-Protector — Fertility and Egg-Testers. 



IT is an adage as old as civilization that every animal comes from 

 the egg; the variations in the different animals consisting in the 

 mode of development. The ovary of a laying hen has the appear- 

 ance of a cluster of fruit: The ovary forms the germ and yolk, and 

 holds them to itself by a membrane. These egg-beginnings differ 

 in size according to stage of development. When fecundation has 



taken place, the membrane, or 

 inclosing sac, breaks, and the 

 germ slips down into the ovi-. 

 duct, tor egg passaged In the 

 oviduct the germ and yolk be- 

 come enveloped in a whitish, 

 tasteless, glairy fluid called al- 

 bumen (which is the white of the 

 egg), and at a still further point 

 become invested with the skin 

 or parchment-like covering 

 which is found inside the shell. 

 Still further in its passage 

 through the oviduct, the .forma- 

 tive egg becomes coated with a 

 calcareous depo'sit which con- 

 stitutes the shell, and the egg is 

 complete and ready to be received into the nest. (See Fig. 1357.) 

 If the ovary matures yolks faster than the latter part of the oviduct 

 does shell, there will be soft-skinned eggs ; and if the glands of the 

 oviduct work faster or longer than the ovary, then a little egg with 

 only white and shell is the result. If sometimes the ovary lets two 

 yolks slip into the oviduct at once, both become invested with the 

 albumen, and a double egg is the result. 

 (1008) 



Fig. 1356.— Ovary of a Hen. 



