MALE DOVES REARED IN ISOLATION 129 



The history of Frank is in general like that of Jack and Billy, 

 but with many differences of detail. 



Jack and Billy had been kept in a well-heated room, where 

 several students were at work daily, both forenoon and after- 

 noon. But Frank was kept in a cold room, in the climate of 

 Maine, where he saw no one except myself, and saw compara- 

 tively little even of me. These conditions probably account 

 for the fact that Frank was for a long time a silent and shy 

 bird. He never bowed-and-cooed, so far as I observed, until 

 April 8 or 9, which was just after a warm wave had struck the 

 locality, bringing, as it happened, a great wave of migrant 

 birds. On April 10th Frank bowed-and-cooed a good deal. 

 But after a few days he became quiet, and I did not hear this 

 display coo from him again until about May 8. In bowing- 

 and-cooing he always stood at the same point on his perch, 

 facing toward a certain corner of the room, and thus was prob- 

 ably directing his display to some object, though I did not 

 discover what that object was. He never directed his bows to 

 me until a change came over him which I shall now recount. 



Since the bird was uncomfortably shy and afraid of human 

 beings, I began about the last of April to starve him mildly 

 and compel him to feed from the hand. He quickly learned to 

 take his seed in this way, and he always jumped on the hand — 

 but not in a friendly manner, often with a few sharp pecks or 

 a blow of the wing. But on May 1 1th, after jumping on the hand 

 as usual he stood still a few seconds and then, quite unexpect- 

 edly, he gave the sexual reaction of the male. 



As soon as the bird had performed this act for the first time, 

 his whole bearing and demeanor changed so markedly that he 

 looked like a different individual. Before, I had mistaken him 

 for a female. Now, his form, his pose (tending toward the 

 charging attitude), his movements, and the glare of his eye 

 betokened the male. He kahed and bowed-and-cooed to the hand, 

 and pecked it in amorous fashion, whereas before he had always 

 pecked in an unfriendly manner. And he allowed the hand to 

 preen his neck and even pull the feathers. 



From that date on until the next change in him (June 17th) 

 Frank exhibited almost daily the sexual tendency, but he grad- 

 ually ceased to bow-and-coo, and he relapsed largely into the 

 demeanor of an immature bird. 



