Dwarf Eggs and the Timing of Ovulation in the Domestic Fowl

THE production of eggs considerably smaller than the normal has been reported in various birds 1 and has been well documented for the domestic fowl 2 . Such eggs have been described as “witch eggs”, “cock eggs”, “dwarf eggs” and “wind eggs”—the latter term also being applied to infertile eggs 3 . It...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1966-06, Vol.210 (5043), p.1371-1371
Main Authors: ROOKLEDGE, K. A, HEALD, P. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:THE production of eggs considerably smaller than the normal has been reported in various birds 1 and has been well documented for the domestic fowl 2 . Such eggs have been described as “witch eggs”, “cock eggs”, “dwarf eggs” and “wind eggs”—the latter term also being applied to infertile eggs 3 . It was known as early as the seventeenth century 3 that the yolks of such eggs were frequently absent, but that there was a central nucleus around which albumin was secreted. In an investigation of 236 dwarf eggs, Pearl and Curtis 2 reported that 35 per cent of all dwarf eggs were without a yolk, 55 per cent contained free yolk and 15 per cent had a complete yolk.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/2101371a0