The Population of Germ Cells in the Developing Female Chick

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Abstract
The process of oögenesis (i.e. the formation of new germ cells by mitotic divisions of oögonia) and the subsequent cytological changes in oöcytes associated with the prophase of meiosis, have been described in detail for many mammalian species (e.g. Winiwarter, 1901; Winiwarter & Sainmont, 1909a, b; Kingery, 1917; Pratt & Long, 1917; Cowperthwaite, 1925; Brambell, 1927; Swezy & Evans, 1930; Martinovitch, 1938; Slizynski, 1957, 1961; Ohno, Kaplan & Kinosita, 1960, 1961; Beaumont & Mandl, 1962; Baker, 1963). In contrast, very few critical studies of these processes in avian ovaries have been undertaken since D'Hollander's (1904) classic description. D'Hollander's careful study of the left (functional) ovary of the chick supported Waldeyer's (1870) thesis that the process of oögenesis is completed by the time of hatching, and that the ovaries of birds resemble those of eutherian mammals in that no new germ cells are generated after sexual maturity (see Franchi, Mandl & Zuckerman, 1962).