10 
greenish liver. Back of the liver and stomach the convo- 
luted intestine will be seen, cut irregularly at several points 
by the section. 
The coils of the intestine are imbedded in a light-colored 
mass of tissue — the reproductive organ — which forms the 
greater part of the visceral mass. The reproductive organ 
varies greatly according to the season, and forms most of 
what is known as the “fat” of the oyster. 
There are no accessory organs of reproduction, and the po- 
sition, form and general appearance of the reproductive or- 
. gan is the same in both sexes. There is no characteristic by 
which a male oyster can be distinguished from a female with- 
out microscopic examination. As the reproductive organ 
has an opening on each side of the body, it is usually spoken 
of as double, but in the adult oyster it forms one continuous 
> mass, with no trace of a division into halves, and extends 
entirely across the body and into all the bends and folds of' 
the digestive tract. 
As my observations only extend over one summer, I cannot 
make any general statements as to the breeding season, ex- 
cept that the oysters in shallow water spawn first, and those in 
deeper water later, as the water becomes warmer. Nearly 
all the oysters in shallow water spawn at about the same time, 
but there is more difference in the oysters taken from the same 
bed in deep water. Oysters in from one to six feet of water 
in the vicinity of Crisfield, probably spawn between the mid- 
dle and end of May, but oysters with ripe eggs were found in 
water from five to six fathoms deep from the 1st to the 30th 
of July, although most of them spawn late in June. 
ARTIFICIAL IMPREGNATION OF TIIE OYSTER EGGS. 
If a number of oysters are opened during the breeding sea- 
son, a few will be found with the reproductive organ greatly 
distended and of an uniform pure opaque white color. These, 
are oysters which are spawning or nearly ready to spawn. 
