MONTHLY MILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Vol. 1, IMo. 9 
Page 1; 
333 eggs, mostly from the Sibley-Cropsey study area, was 0.295 + 0.002mm. There 
was little evidence of (l) variation due to type of nest from xdiich eggs were 
obtained, (abandoned, active, or dump nest or dropped egg), or of (2) significant 
chronological trends which might have arisen as more eggs were layed by individual 
hens. 
Ash content of leg bones increased from the distal bone (tarso-meta- 
tarsus about 6l per cent) to the proximal bone (femur about 68 per cent). The 
ash content of tibiae in seven mid hens (about 61; per cent) was equal to the 
highest value reported by Dale for game farm hens on the Patuxent Research Refuge, 
Laurel, Maryland. The lowest femur-ash percentage (65.81; per cent) in a series 
of 65 wild hens was obtained from a "California" hen killed April 1, 1957, on the 
Neoga study area where there are mostly acid soils. There i^as no evidence of 
calcium deficiency, even during the egg-laying period, in the bone-ash values 
obtained from hens killed in 18 other counties in the northeastern one-third of 
the state. More data are needed, however, from a wide variety of geographic areas 
and from hens with known egg production determined from counts of ovulated ovarian 
follicles. 
