Gary Metzer, commissioner of Santa Clara County Fish and Game will be our guest speaker.

The membership rosters are ready and can be picked up at the meeting.

Good news - Hank Johnson of Fresno is recovering at home after heart surgery. We all wish you well Hank, and Betty too.

We will have a SPECIAL MEETING on March 20, at 7:30 p.m. here at the cafetorium. This meeting is for discussing the show and catalogue. All members who show birds and any one intending to show for the first time are urged to attend this meeting.

I forgot to mention the raffle last month. We always have one. For our April 11 meeting, we will have a SWAP MEET. Any bird equipment that you no longer use, or birds you would like to trade or sell. This should be a fun time, and don't forget something for the raffle. Our May meeting, being a week before Mother's Day, maybe we could have a plant raffle. Dig up, divide or transplant a plant, shrub, treee or start some vegetables now. Give them T.L.C. (tender loving care) and donate them at the May 2 meeting. Let's see what good green thumbs we have.

Leonard Quieto has unpainted Gloster show cages for sale, $7.00 each.
David Silva would like to buy clear glass cups for cages.

The entire process of making an egg after fertilization takes place in twenty-one hours and thirty minutes; the the schedule is tight and precise. The mother will lay more, one a day, until she has laid her complete quota.

The process and timing of the egg formation inside the female is precise. An egg starts as a single cell, it grows in size and comlexity as layers of yolk, albumen, membrane and shell are laid around it. It may or may not be fertilized by a male sperm in the process of its formation. If it is, it still must wait until it has been laid and incubated by the mother before a chick begins to form.

At about three months old the first coating of yolk is laid around a germ cell in the young chick. The yolk of the egg is made up of six rings each having a white and yellow layer, laid down to a strict rhythm, determined by the position of the sun, during the day and up until midnight, the yolk is formed. The white forms between midnight and sun up. The final layer requires more than passing of days and nights to set it off. It needs the presence of a male bird. His just being there in the spring time triggers a hormonal change in the now mature female that creates the final layer.

With its lustrous yolk sac completed, the egg ruptures from its mooring and falls into the oviduct. After mating takes place, and as the egg proceeds down the oviduct it encounters a male sperm. The sperm does not pierce the egg, for fertilization is not violent; rather it is a gentle embrace on the part of the egg. The egg literally embraces the sperm. To be continued.

Sincerely in the fancy,
Lorraine Di Maria

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