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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



The case which I wish to record is very similar to that figured 

 byHargitt ('12) and termed by him a " gourd-shaped " egg. Un- 

 fortunately, the egg which Professor Hargitt studied was not 

 preserved carefully and on account of evaporation, the condition 

 was such that he could not be certain of the presence of yolk in 

 the smaller end. He assumed that the egg was comprised of 



about normal parts in the larger end, and that the smaller con- 

 sisted of only albumen, "its yellowish tint having resulted from 

 the evaporating process which had taken place." 



The egg shown (Fig. 1) was presented to Professor Julius Nel- 

 son, of Rutgers College, several years ago and was carefully pre- 

 served in a jar of alcohol. The result was that although the ac- 

 tion of the alcohol had partially decolorized the yolk, it was pos- 

 sible to trace it throughout the entire extent with no difficulty. 

 As can be readily seen from the photograph, that part of the egg 

 which might be termed the "neck" presented a much roughened 

 appearance from the excessive accretion of lime. A nodule of 

 lime at the smaller end of the shell would seem to indicate that 

 the last deposit of the shell glands was there received. 



For convenience in examination of the irregular shaped egg, it 

 was separated at the circling line seen in Fig. 1, and then the two 

 parts were halved with a sharp scalpel, after the penetration of 

 the shell by means of scissors. 



When the first separation was made at the line indicated, one 

 could readily discern the presence of a constricted yolk sur- 

 rounded by apparently normal albumen. Examination of the 

 halved portions showed that the yolk extended from the larger 

 end through the constricted region to occupy a position approxi- 

 mately normal in the smaller end. It seems possible that this 

 particular abnormality may have been caused by a constricted 



