MALE DOVES REARED IN ISOLATION 123 



theless, after four more days of such acquaintance, when on the 

 afternoon of July 18th I again let him into her cage, he was again 

 cruel to her, though he did also nest-call to her. I closed the 

 doors between them after ten minutes. A main reason to be 

 given for Jack's cruelty to the female, is that he regarded me, 

 the human being, in some degree at least, as his mate; the 

 female dove was, therefore, in so far regarded as an interloper, 

 to be attacked and driven away. 



But from July 14th, when Jack first came in contact with a 

 dove, he began to divide his attentions between human beings 

 and doves. He ceased to kah and bow-and-coo to me; though 

 until the day of his death he remained as tame as ever, and al- 

 ways pecked the hand that was put in his cage. 



In regard to the sexual reaction, Jack's behavior was most 

 remarkable. He never showed this reaction at all, so far as I 

 observed, until he came into contact with another dove. And 

 then he showed (at first) no tendency to unite with that dove. 

 But it appeared nevertheless that the dove had aroused his 

 sexual impulse; for on July 18th, when food was put in his 

 cage, Jack pecked the hand that was putting in the seed-cup, 

 then assumed that peculiar erect posture which precedes copu- 

 lation, jumped on the hand, and began to go through the move- 

 ments of copulation, an act he had never done before. 



"July 19, 10:40 A. M. I open the doors, letting male into 

 cage of female. He chases her savagely, bites, pulls feathers. 

 After one minute he goes to nest-calling, but soon savagely 

 chases her again. 



" He then bows-and-coos a great deal to me. Also, he makes 

 a curious little flight upward, and a feint as if to alight on back 

 of female. I suspect that he is seeking copulation, but is seek- 

 ing the hand as his stimulus; so I put hand in the cage, and 

 find that my surmise is correct. He does not tamely jump on 

 the hand, he flies on it; then he begins to go through the move- 

 ments of the sexual reaction. Soon as this was put beyond 

 question, the hand was taken away from him." 



The male then went back to the nest site, sounded the nest- 

 call, allowed the female to come to him and caress him, preened 

 her head a little in return, and thus worked himself up to another 

 crisis of excitement. When the crisis came, he again made not 

 the slightest attempt at intercourse in the normal manner, but 



