incomplete, but also that it was performed on mature birds. Birds differ
from Mammals, firstly, in the difficulty of carrying out complete
castration, and secondly, in the fact that the occurrence of puberty is
not so definite, and that immature birds are so small and delicate that it
is almost impossible to operate upon them successfully.


ASSUMPTION OF MALE CHARACTERS BY THE FEMALE

That male somatic sexual characters are latent in the female is shown by
the frequent appearance of such characters in old age, or in individual
cases. The development of hair on the face of women in old age, or after
the child-bearing period, is a well-known fact. Rorig, [Footnote: 'Ueber
Geweihbildung und Geweihentwicklung.' _Arch. Ent.-Mech._ x. and xi.] who
carefully studied the antlers of stags, states that old sterile females,
and those with diseased ovaries, develop antlers to some degree. Cases of
crowing hens, and female birds assuming male plumage have long been known,
but the exact relation of the somatic changes to the condition of the
ovaries in these cases is worthy of consideration in view of the results
obtained by Goodale after removal of the ovaries from ducks. Shattock and
Seligmann [Footnote: 'True Hermaphroditism in Domestic Fowl, etc.' _Trans.
Path. Soc._, Lond., 57. 1, 1906.] record the case of a gold pheasant hen
which assumed the full male plumage after the first moult: it had never
laid eggs or shown any sexual instincts. The only male character which was
wanting was that of the spurs. The ovary was represented by a smooth,
slightly elevated deep black eminence 1 cm. in length and 1-5 mm. in
breadth at its upper end. These authors also mention three ducks in male
plumage in which the ovary was similarly atrophied but not pigmented. They
regard the condition of the ovary as insufficient to explain the
development of the male characters, and suggest that such birds are really