VOl 'l9n Vm ] Craig, Emotion in the Passenger Pigeon. 421 



of preening her feathers gently as the male Ring-Dove usually 

 does, he preens her so roughly that she is frightened and edges 

 off from him. 



The act of billing, which occurs in all pigeons before copulation, 

 is in Ectopistes reduced to a mere form. In the Ring-Dove, the 

 male opens his mouth, the female puts her bill into it, then follows 

 a pumping movement in which the male seems to be actually 

 feeding the female; then the pair leisurely disconnect, mumble 

 their mouths as if they had a sweet taste in them, and soon bill 

 again in the same careful manner. But in the Passenger the bills 

 are quickly clasped, shaken for a fraction of a second, and as 

 quickly separated; the performance is precisely like a brief, quick 

 handshake. It is probable that there is no passing of food from 

 one mouth to the other. This perfunctory mode of billing, again, 

 causes some difficulty in crossing the species: for example, if a 

 male Passenger is mated with a female Ring-Dove, when they are 

 leading one another up to the point of copulation, the male bills 

 in his abbreviated fashion and immediately wishes to mount, but 

 the female is not yet ready, she is trying again to bill. 



With regard to the manner of copulation, I made the following 

 note on July 24, 1903. 



"Each time they copulate, female stands up very straight when male 

 mounts; this compels him to flap his wings for long time, scrambling up 

 near her neck, till she becomes tired [?] and sinks down, then he copulates." 



I cannot say whether this procedure is invariably followed, but 

 if so it is peculiar to the species and in keeping with their generally 

 rough manner of wooing. This scrambling of the male on the 

 back of the female is probably a stimulus which serves the same 

 function as the protracted billing in other species. 



With regard to the cojyulation-note, 



(July 24, 1903.) "After copulation, male takes a position somewhat 

 like that of fear (fighting), head drawn in and feathers puffed out, and 

 clucks in a soft toneless voice i* T !* T ■» [/ T C/ • Female clucks in somewhat 

 similar way, raises wings and strikes male with them two or three times. 



"After copulation this evening (7:20 p. m., dusk) both stand up straight 

 and tickle each other's heads with nervous rapidity for several seconds." 



In all this, the only act at all peculiar to the species is that of 

 the female striking the male with her wings. 



