RESPIRATION AND EMOTION IN PIGEONS. 

 By John E. Rouse. 



[From the Ha7'vard Psychological Laboratory .) 



CONTENTS. 



I. Problem and Method. 494 



II. Normal Respiration. 497 



III. General Respiratory Reactions 499 



1. Acoustical. ....... 499 



2. Olfactory. ........ 500 



J. Mechanical. ........ 5°° 



4. Visual. ........ 501 



IV. Color-Preference Tests 502 



V. Detailed Study of Respiratory Reactions to Light. 503 



J. Reactions to light of different quality. . . . 506 



2. Reactions to light of different intensity. . . . 509 



VI. Summary 512 



I, Problem and Method. 



Both daily observation and numerous expressions in liter- 

 ature indicate the highly developed emotional life of birds. All 

 other lower animals, even dogs, are inferior to them in this 

 regard. Desiring to investigate this interesting subject, I un- 

 dertook an experimental study of the respiratory reactions of 

 the pigeon, an animal which is easily handled and which readi- 

 ly adapts itself to laboratory confinement. 



As a process through which to study mental phenomena, 

 breathing^ combines two important advantages : — first, it is 

 variable, being highly sensitive not only to changes of the 

 blood, but also to impulses from the peripheral or from the 

 central nervous system; and, secondly, its alterations may be eas- 

 ily recorded pneumographically. The value of the pneumograph- 



^The physiology of respiration is well summarized by Starling in Schae- 

 fer's Text-Book of Physiology, II, 274-312. 



