The principles of population genetics as formulated by Wright (1921) elucidated by Lush (1945), and applied to poultry by Lerner (1950), provide the basis for an investigation into the relative contributions of heredity and environment to egg shape. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) from the practical standpoint, a knowledge of the heritability of egg shape and the correlation of egg shape with characters under selection, particularly egg weight, may be useful in breeding programs; (2) from the theoretical (and ultimately practical) standpoint, egg shape is a convenient character for studies on the relationship of environmental factors to balanced genetic systems.* The definition of egg shape used here is 100 times the maximum breadth divided by the greatest length. This shape index was proposed by Pearl and Surface (1914) and is the one used by Marble (1943) who postulated the polygenic nature of this trait.
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Fred T. Shultz (1953) studied this question.
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