No. 582] EGG-LAYING ACTIVITY IN DOMESTIC FOWL 365 



smallness of the numbers in this group. The percentile.' 

 of records that indicate actual laying drops rapidly from 

 87.8 per cent, for 5-10 per cent, yellow to zero for grades 

 of yellow above 30 per cent. 8 The table shows that it is 

 practically certain that a bird with an ear-lobe showing 

 more than 30 per cent, yellow at the time of the records, 

 is not in a laying condition. 



TABLE III 



Average Egg Records for Different Grades of Yellow in Bears and 

 Legs of 256 White Leghorn's 



Beak and Leg Color.— The beak and legs are more 

 difficult to grade quantitatively than the ear-lobes. The 

 color is less uniform in its distribution and has more of 

 an orange hue, requiring the manipulation of at least one 



8 The three cases of laying, among the 557 records in the grades above 30 

 per cent, yellow were for sporadic layers. The one in the 40 per cent, group 

 laid October 18, but at no other time in October or September. This case 



cent, grade laid during October only upon the 2d, 4th and 25th, though she 

 laid 18 eggs in September; the other laid during October only on the 16th 

 and 19th and had no eggs to her credit in the second half of September. 



