20 BEHAVIOR OF PIGEONS. 



hence it was connected with the premature beginning of the next cycle. The 

 description was given under the caption "The male feeds the female." 



The second case occurred during the latter part of the first cycle. The male 

 had finished prematurely his incubation period on January 1, 1906, while the last 

 egg was hatched on January 4. In the meantime the male participated in the 

 incubation perfunctorily and half-heartedly and spent much time in attempting 

 to entice the female to a new cycle. When the eggs were hatched the male did 

 not feed the young nor take his turn in covering them. The female was thus 

 forced to do double duty in both feeding and covering the young. The young 

 birds died for lack of proper care, and a new cycle was started immediately on 

 January 8. The feeding occurred on the 5th, the day after the second egg was 

 hatched. The motive of the female's behavior in accepting food could well be 

 hunger and not sexuality, for she had been doing double duty in nesting and 

 feeding for several days, and she did not respond to the sexual advances of her 

 mate until three days after the event in question. Since the male normally 

 participates in the feeding of the young, one might suspect that this act of feeding 

 his mate represented the onset of this normal impulse. This interpretation is 

 improbable, however, because the male's conduct was not normal. He had finished 

 his incubation period and had started on a new cycle four days previously. Under 

 these conditions the feeding impulse does not develop, and, moreover, he gave no 

 sign of this tendency in his behavior towards the young. The act seems rather 

 to be connected with his sex behavior. 



The third case of feeding occurred on January 26, i.e., on the tenth day of the 

 incubation period of the second cycle, and 7 to 8 days before the eggs were due to 

 hatch. Both birds had been engaged in courting and attempts at copulation for 

 three days previously, and the eggs were definitely deserted; the third cycle started 

 on the day the act occurred. The act was thus connected neither with hunger nor 

 with the impulse to feed the young; it occurred in the midst of their courting 

 activities, so that in both birds this behavior was undoubtedly in some way 

 connected with their sexual activities. 



During the fifth cycle of this pair it was noted in connection with the detailed 

 description of their uniting behavior that "there was no feeding 1 this time." This 

 cycle was begun after a lapse of about 40 days. 



THE QUEST FOR A NEST. 



When ready to find a place to nest many pigeons may be often seen to raise their 

 wings a little as if to fly, and while the wings are thus raised they are wagged or moved 

 a little and the head is stretched forward. This is common conduct in Ectopistes when it 

 is ready to seek a place for a nest. The same behavior has been seen in stock-doves 

 (C. cenas), and I have often seen the same in common pigeons. In this state the bird seems 

 uneasy, is ready to fly, but is undecided where to go; it executes a flying movement which 

 is held in restraint, and which is sometimes only a sort of vibration of the wings while 

 closed and held a little loose. At other times the wings are more or less extended, as if 

 for flight. 



1 This statement probably means that there was neither billing nor feeding. EDITOR. 



