No. 555] CASTRATION IN BROWN LEGHORNS 



166 



showed some inclination to pay attention to the hens, but 

 as far as I was able to observe, it never went as far as an 

 attempt at copulation. At the autopsy it was found that 

 there had been an autoplastic transplantation of a bit of 

 the testis. 



It will have been observed from the foregoing descrip- 

 tion, that the small comb of these capons is the only char- 

 acter which might be considered female. In all other 

 points the characters of the capon are the characters of 

 the cock, sometimes exaggerated (feather length), some- 

 times infantile (crowing instinct). None are positively 

 female, except perhaps the comb, which is much too large 

 to be purely infantile, and too small and of the wrong 

 proportions to be that of a normal adult female. On the 

 whole it most closely resembles that of the mature youn$ 

 female before she has actually commenced to lay, or of 

 the adult female when out of laying condition. Comb size 

 is affected by so many conditions that the question as to 

 whether or not the capon has a female type of comb is 

 not easily answered, and therefore must await further 

 studies. 



We may turn now to the effects of castration on the 



