SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF ALBINO RAT 101 



meats are integrated into a complex unitary pattern. By the 

 elucidation of this process an important step will have been taken 

 in the analysis of the changes through which elementary activi- 

 ties are being combined and dissolved continually in habit for- 

 mation throughout the lifetime of living organisms. 



A preliminary basis for the study of the integrative process 

 may be established by resolving the copulatory pattern into its 

 chief constituent activities and then ascertaining whether these 

 elements appear in isolated or partially isolated function during 

 the prepuberal life of the young animal or whether they appear 

 for the firat time as parts of the complex copulatory pattern. 

 This has been done by observing the prepuberal activity of the 

 young male under natural and experimentally controlled situa- 

 tions. The presentation of these data may be simplified some- 

 what by considering at the outset the copulatory act of the sex- 

 ually mature and experienced male. This consideration will 

 furnish an adequate basis for the examination of the prepuberal 

 activities and the initial copulatory act of the young male. 



1. Copulatory act as seen in the mature rat 



One cannot give a detailed description of the male's sexual 

 activities without taking into account the pattern of feminine 

 activity by which it is initiated and toward which it is directed. 

 That is to say, the conjugal act as a whole involves both a mas- 

 culine and a feminine pattern of activity, the elements of which 

 have a relationship of functional interdependence, and are them- 

 selves, acts of a high degree of complexity. The elements of 

 each pattern appear in serial order and are so synchronized that 

 elemeiits of one pattern act in harmony with those of the other. 

 And thus through mutual furtherance they run their courses in 

 the wonderfully complete and well coordinated manner seen in 

 a cross-sectional view of the reproductive process. 



When a female is placed into the cage of a potent male that 

 has been thoroughly cage-adapted, the latter begins in a few 

 seconds to examine her ano-vaginal zone. Smelling and lick- 

 ing occur irrespective of oestral cycle, and the amount varies 

 with a given individual from day to day. The non-receptive 



