lOO Life and Love. 



exuberant life of the male express itself, and at 

 each recurring season of love these badges of love 

 and life are renewed. 



Sometimes they but brighten, again they grow 

 anew each season, disappearing when the brief 

 turmoil is over. 



And what care for the precious life-germs is 

 shown in the history of the birds ! Here is no 

 lavish expenditure, no pouring out of the principle 

 of life to meet its fate exposed and disregarded. 



The bird's ovaries are small, and placed deep in 

 the innermost recesses of the body. There are 

 two of them, one on either side, though as a rule 

 only the one lying on the left side develops; so it 

 seems in the adult bird as though there were but 

 one ovary. 



In this ovary the tiny egg-cells, no larger than 

 pin-heads, form. A long tube, or oviduct, con- 

 nects the ovary with the lower end of the intestine, 

 whence it opens into the outer world. 



Like the ovaries of the female, the sperm-sacs of 

 the male are small and deep-hidden and have their 

 outlet. 



While still in the ovary the tiny egg-cell, as it 

 ripens, absorbs a large quantity of food, so that it 

 assumes in the hen's egg a size of about an inch in 

 diameter, forming what we know as the yolk of the 

 egg. When it has reached its full size the egg-cell 

 breaks away from its containing membrane and 

 begins its journey down the oviduct. 



