BIRDS. 475 



Female pigeons occasionally feel a strong antipathy toward 

 certain males, without any assignable cause. Thus MM. 

 Boitard and Corbie, whose experience extended over forty- 

 five years, state: "Quand une femelle eprouve de Fantip- 

 athie pour un male avec lequel on veut Paccoupler, malgre 

 tous les feux de Pamour, malgre 1'alpiste et le chenevis dont 

 on la nourrit pour augmenter son ardeur, malgre un em- 

 prisonnement de six mois et me'me d'un an, elle refuse con- 

 stamment ses caresses; les avances empressees, les agaceries, 

 les tournoiemens. les tendres roucoulemens, rien ne pent lui 

 plaire ni Temouvoir; gonfle"e, boudeuse, blottie dans un 

 coin de sa prison, elle n/en sort que pour boire et manger, 

 on pour repousser avec une espece de rage des caresses 

 devenues trop pressantes/' * On the other hand, Mr. 

 Harrison Weir has himself observed and has heard from 

 several breeders, that a female pigeon will occasionally take 

 a strong fancy for a particular male, and will desert her 

 own mate for him. Some females, according to another 

 experienced observer, Riedel,f are of a profligate disposi- 

 tion, 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 Audu- 

 bon, " sometimes pay their addresses to the domesticated 

 females, and are generally received by them with great 

 pleasure." So that these females apparently prefer the 

 wild to their own males. J 



Here is a more curious case. Sir R. Heron during many 

 years kept an account of the habits of the pea-fowl, which 

 he bred in large numbers. He states that '' the hens have 

 frequently great preference to a particular peacock. They 

 were all so fond of an old pied cock that one year, when he 

 was confined, though still in view, they were constantly 

 assembled close to the trellised-walls of his prison, and would 



* Boitard and Corbie, "Les Pigeons, etc.," 1824, p. 12. Prosper 

 Lucas ("Traite de 1'Hered. Nat.," torn, ii, 1850, p. 296) has himself 

 observed nearly similar facts with pigeons. 



f " Die Taubenzucht," 1824, s. 86. 



\ "Ornithological Biography," vol. i, p. 13. See to the same 

 effect, Dr. Bryant, in "Allen's Mammals and Birds of Florida, " p. 

 344, 



