Q4 SEXUAL SELECTION : BIRDS. [Part II 



of his birds with magenta, but they were not much no- 

 ticed by the others. 



Female pigeons occasionally feel a strong antipathy 

 toward certain males, without any assignable cause. 

 Thus MM. Boitard and Corbie, whose experience ex- 

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

 eprouve de l'antipathie pour un male avec lequel on veut 

 l'accoupler, malgre tous les feux de l'amour, malgre Pal- 

 piste et le chenevis dont on la nourrit pour augmenter son 

 ardeur, malgre un emprisonnement de six mois et meme 

 d'un an, elle refuse constamment ses caresses ; les avances 

 empressees, les agaceries, les tournoiemens, les tendres 

 roucoulemens, rien ne peut lui plaire ni l'emouvoir ; gonflee 

 boudeuse, blottie dans un coin de sa prison, elle n'en sort 

 que pour boire et manger, ou pour repousser avec une 

 espece de rage des caresses devenues trop pressantes." " 

 On the other hand, Mr. Harrison Weir has himself ob- 

 served, and has heard from several breeders, that a female 

 pigeon will occasionally take a strong fancy for a particu- 

 lar male, and will desert her own mate for him. Some 

 females, according to another experienced observer, Rie- 

 del, 23 are of a profligate disposition, and prefer almost any 

 stranger to their own mate. Some amorous males, called 

 by our English fanciers " gay birds," are so successful in 

 their gallantries, that, as Mr. H. Weir informs me, they 

 must be shut up, on account of the mischief which they 

 cause. 



Wild-turkeys in the United States, according to Au- 

 dubon, " sometimes pay their addresses to the domesti- 

 cated females, and are generally received by them with 



22 Boitard and Corbie, ' Les Pigeons,' 1824, p. 12. Prosper Lucaa 

 ('Traite de l'Hered. Nat.' tome ii. 1850, p. 296) has himself observed 

 nearly similar facts with pigeons. 



93 « Die Taubenzucht,' 1824, s. 86. 



