50 BEHAVIOR OF PIGEONS. 



of about 45. She spent about a minute in laying and made vigorous efforts at short 

 intervals to expel the egg. As soon as it was dropped she took a standing position over 

 it for about 20 minutes and then flew up to the perch. At about 7 p. m. I found her sit- 

 ting on the egg. 



I expected two females of two pairs of ring-dove females (L2 and GF 1) mated to 

 crested males to lay for the "first time in life." I found both on their nests at 3 h 50 m , 

 and kept watch of them in order to get the exact time. Both behaved as if they were 

 just ready to lay. Female L 2 remained on the nest until 5 h 30 m , came off for a minute, 

 returned, and came off again in about a minute. She went back almost immediately, 

 but stopped on the edge of the nest-box. Here she sat quietly until 7 h 25 m , when, frightened 

 by something, probably an owl appearing before the window, she flew to the floor and her 

 mate flew to another corner of the pen. After a few minutes she went back to the edge 

 of the nest-box, where she remained all night, returning to the nest early in the morning. 

 Female GF 1 came off the nest at 4 h 30 m , flew to the floor, and then took her place on 

 the perch beside her mate until 5 h 45 m , when she went to the nest-box and sat quietly 

 until 7 h 50 m ; at this time she got up on the edge of the nest-box and soon after stepped 

 upon the perch close by, where she remained all night, returning to the nest early the 

 following morning. 



These two females evidently went through the preliminaries to laying, but they were 

 a little premature in their actions. By experience they will learn to waste less time in 

 fruitless formalities and make less ado over such a small matter as laying an egg. After 

 10 days there are no eggs from either of these females, but GF 1 has been busy during 

 the mornings of nearly every day, and to-day her wings droop, showing that she is about 

 ready to try to lay. Female L 2 has spent less time on the nest, and sometimes seems to 

 have given up nesting for the present. On the following day GF 1 began to incubate 

 the empty nest, i.e., without having laid, and L 2 did not lay until 17 days after an egg 

 was expected. The act was not observed. (R 19, SS 4, R 33.) 



TIME OF HATCHING. 



I have observed one or two interesting things in regard to the time of hatching. I 

 have noted that young birds never hatch, or very rarely, after 3 o'clock in the afternoon; 

 they usually hatch early in the morning. If not early in the morning, then between 

 10 a. m. and 12 noon. If not within these latter hours there is, as a rule, no hatching 

 between 12 noon and 1 p. m. There may be now and then exceptions, of course, but if 

 the egg does not hatch by 3 p. m. one can be fairly certain that nothing will be done 

 until the next morning. It may be fully time for the bird to hatch, but for some reason 

 the hatching is not completed and the bird goes to sleep, apparently rests, and then wakes 

 up very early with the rest of the birds in the morning and concludes the hatch. I have 

 timed this phenomenon and watched so closely that I feel very certain that the bird, 

 before hatching, has his time of resting, and that these times correspond to the times of 

 rest in the old birds. In the middle of the day the birds are always very quiet and resting; 

 the bird in the shell remains quiet also. 1 (SS 10.) 



The data of the available records are given in Table 5. These figures support 

 the above statements. Of the 113 cases, only 83 are definite enough to be utilized. 



1 The prenatal behavior of the pigeon ought to be studied. The young bird goes to sleep and awakens regularly, 

 and thus it is determined that it shall not hatch out at an improper time. Hatching takes place early in the morn- 

 ing, or sometimes toward noon. It is very rarely, and only in the case of some delay, that a bird hatches out as late 

 as 2 o'clock. I have known a bird to have performed a great part of the work of opening the shell and then go to 

 sleep and wait till the next morning. I suppose they "know the time" by the regular recurrence of their own activ- 

 ities, and by its being the time of greatest activity of the parent birds. The young bird usually first cracks the egg 

 about 24 hours before emerging. It begins to work about 5 a. m. and continues till perhaps 11 a. m., when it takes 

 a noonday rest. The parents rest from about 11 to 1 o'clock. (Conv. 7/20/10, W. C.) 



