118 SEXUAL SELECTION : BIKDS. Part IL 



*' true breediDg if a game-cock in good health and con- 

 " dition runs the locality, for almost every hen on leaving 

 '• the roosting-place will resort to the game-cock, even 

 " though that bird may not actually drive away the male 

 " of her own variety." Under ordinary circumstances the 

 males and females of the fowl seem to come to a mutual 

 understanding by means of certain gestures, described 

 to me by Mr. Brent. But hens will often avoid the 

 ofPicious attentions of young males. Old hens, and 

 hens of a pugnacious disposition, as the same writer 

 informs me, dislike strange males, and will not yield 

 until well beaten into compliance. Ferguson, however, 

 describes how a quarrelsome hen was subdued by the 

 gentle courtship of a Shanghai cock.^° 



There is reason to believe that pigeons of both sexes 

 prefer pairing with birds of the same breed ; and dove- 

 cot-pigeons dislike all the highly improved breeds.^^ Mr. 

 Harrison ¥»"eir has lately heard from a trustvv^orthy 

 observer, who keeps blue pigeons, that these drive 

 away all other coloured varieties, such as white, red, 

 and yellow ; and from another observer, that a female 

 dun carrier could not be matched, after repeated trials, 

 with a black male, but immediately paired with a dun. 

 Generally colour alone appears to have little influence 

 on tlie pairing of pigeons. Mr. Tegetmeier, at my re- 

 quest, stained some of his birds with magenta, but they 

 were not much noticed by the others. 



Female pigeons occasionally feel a strong antipathy 

 towards certain males, without any assignable cause. 

 Thus J\1M. Boitard and Corbie, whose experience ex- 

 tended over forty-five years, state : " Quand uue femelle 



20 ' Eare and Prize Poultry,' 1854, p. 27. 



21 ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. 

 ii. p. lOB. 



