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XXV.—The Effect of Increased Daily Illumination and of Reversed Day and Night on the Œstrus Cycle of the Mouse (Mus musculus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

R. A. R. Gresson
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Edinburgh
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Extract

In the course of a recent investigation on the fertilised egg of the mouse (Gresson, 1940 a, b) it was necessary to keep a record of the time at which pairing took place. This revealed that copulation, especially in the winter, was very infrequent during the hours of daylight, and usually took place at about 12 midnight or between midnight and early morning. Similar observations were made by Lewis and Wright (1935), who found that in the autumn and winter mice seldom copulated during the day, and that while the majority of pairings took place between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., several of their mice paired between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m., whereas in the spring pairing occurred more readily during all hours of the day.

Type
Proceedings
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1940

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References

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