1877. ] Zodlogy. 623 
while in the oviduct. In the case of the hen this does not seem to be 
exceptional but normal, as it appears to occur in nearly every case ; 
and Oebacher concludes from his observations upon the subject (Die 
Veränderungen des unbefruchteten Keimes des Hiihnereier im eileiter 
und bei Bebriitungsversuchen, Zeitschr. f. Wiss. zool, xxii., 1872, page 
220): “We may therefore state confidently that the hen’s egg goes 
through the process of segmentation during the intrametral period, 
whether it is fecundated or not, and we must therefore regard it as 
brought about by the organization of the egg itself, and not as caused by 
the influence of the male fluid.” 
Bischoff has found eggs in various stages of segmentation in the 
ovaries of a virgin sow which had been carefully separated from thé 
male during life, and Hensen has made similar observations upon the 
rabbit. According to Vogt (Bilder aus dem Thierleben, page 217) 
the unfertilized eggs of Firola undergo segmentation; and Quatre- 
fages records the same thing in Unio (Compt. Rend., 1849, page 101). 
In the Viades the eggs are certainly discharged from the ovaries before 
impregnation takes place, although it is of course possible that some of 
the spermatic fluid may gain access to the oviduct. As the cilia of this 
duct are so placed as to cause an outward current this is hardly prob- 
able, and I have found and figured segmented eggs in the follicles of the 
ovary of Anodonta. These eggs were taken from the ovary a few days 
after the brood for that year had passed into the gills; and they were 
fully grown and ripe, and were very plainly the remnants of the brood 
of that season, which from some cause had failed to escape into the 
oviduct and pass into the gills. They did not differ in any particular 
from fertilized eggs at the same stage of development. 
These cases are by no means all which might be collected to show 
that in groups of animals in which partheno-genesis does not occur, the 
eggs have still the power to go through part of the process of develop- 
ment without fertilization, and I believe, from conversations with fisher- 
men and fish-breeders, that among fishes this is by no means rare. As 
partheno-genesis is normal among many of the lower animals, and since 
traces of the same power are thus found among the higher vertebrates, 
I think that we must conclude that the egg has in itself the power to 
form a new individual, although this power is never perfectly, and 
Usually not at all, shown until development is excited by the influence 
of the spermatic filaments of the male. — W. K. Brooks. 
A Brack RATTLESNAKE. — While exploring the cañon of Alameda 
Creek, about one mile and a half beyond Niles Station, California, one of 
the civil engineers of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, on the 30th 
July, came across a rattlesnake as black as jet, without even a white 
Shade on the belly. The snake had ten rattles, and was three feet in 
length. Rattlesnakes are not uncommon in this part of the State, and 
are sometimes killed in Strawberry Cafion, near the university at 
Berkeley. — R. E. C. S. 
