Chickens, Oysters, Eggs

Cocks or hens to order may be the daily program of the poultry yard a few years hence, if experiments by Dr. F. A. E. Crew, director of the biological research laboratory at the University of Edinburgh, reported at the Liverpool meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (TIME, Sept. 24) fulfill his expectations. Dr. Crew took a pure-bred buff Orpington hen which had already laid eggs, and by an artificial glandular process little understood, changed its sex. At least, the comb, wattles and spurs grew, the bird crowed instead of cackled, paid attention to other hens, and, when mated with a hen of his own breed, became the father of two chicks. Dr. Crew is studying the mechanism of the reversal in 50 fowls, but takes care not to make predictions regarding any other species. Crew's results recall opposite sex changes which Steinach produced on rats.

Sex reversal has been noted also in oysters, which change their sex three or four times a year, according to a Danish experimenter, Sparck, at Limfjord, and an Englishman, Orton, at Plymouth. The phenomena are thought to be connected with the temperature of the surrounding waters.

At the West Virginia University Agricultural Station, poultry experts have developed breeds of chickens with two sets of ovaries, which alternately lay elongated and normal eggs. They hope to develop hens to lay two eggs a day.