040 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



thie pour un m§le aveo lequel on veut I'accoupler, malgrd 

 tous les feux de 1' amour, malgr^ I'alpiste et le chfenevis 

 dont on la nourrit pour augmenter son ardeur, malgr^ un 

 emprisoanement de six mois et m^me d'un an, elle refuse 

 constamment ses caresses; les avances empress^es, les aga- 

 ceries, les tournoiemens, les tendres roucoulemens, rien ne 

 pent lui plaire ni I'dmouvoir; gonfl^e, boudeuse, blottie 

 dans un coin de sa prison, elle n'en sort que pour boire et 

 manger, ou pour repousser avec une esp^ce 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 occasion- 

 ally take a strong fancy for a particular male, and will 

 desert her own mate for him. Some females, according to 

 another experienced observer, Eiedel," are of a profligate 

 disposition, and prefer almost any stranger to their own 

 mate. Some amorous males, called by our English fan- 

 ciers "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. "^ 



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

 years kept an account of the habits of the peafowl, which he 

 bred in large numbers. He states that "the hens have fre- 

 quently 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 assem- 

 bled close to the trellis-walls of his prison, and would not 



" Boitard and Corbi^ "Les Pigeons," etc., 1824, p. 12. Prosper Lucas 

 •'"Traits de I'H^red. Nat.," torn, ii., 1850, p. 296) has himself observed nearly 

 similar facts with pigeons. 



2* "DieTaubenzucht," 1824, s. 86. 



25 "Ornithological Biography,'! vol. i. p. 13. See to the same effect, Dr. 

 Bryant, in "Allen's Mammals and Birds of Florida," p. 344. 



