NOTES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THE DOMESTIC 

 FOWL 1 



PHILIP B. HADLEY 

 Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station 

 During the month of February, 1909, the writer's at- 

 tention was called to an interesting feature of the be- 

 havior of a buff rock cockerel kept in the poultry depart- 

 ment of the Rhode Island State College at Kingston, 

 Rhode Island. Having briefly described the facts of the 

 case to Dr. Robert M. Yerkes of the Department of Psy- 

 chology of Harvard University, and having been informed 

 by him that the behavior in question was somewhat note- 

 worthy, the writer has collected data, secured photo- 

 graphs, and desires to present the following description, 

 believing it may be of interest to students of animal be- 

 havior. The point of behavior under consideration con- 

 sists in the acquired habit of an adult barred rock cock- 

 erel of "working" an automatic feeder, containing bran 

 and grain, located in one of the colony houses of the 

 poultry department, and by this action of securing a 

 larger amount of the grain constituent than the feeder, 

 working by itself, would naturally be able to supply. 



The automatic feeder in question is of a type manu- 

 factured by John Anderson, of Slocums, Rhode Island, 

 and involves mainlv a box (Fig. 1, B) containing feed, 

 and a tray (T) suspended beneath it. The dimensions of 

 the box are roughly sixteen by eleven by eight inches. 

 The food material escapes from the box through a nar- 

 row opening at the back and bottom of the feeder, and is 

 caught in the tray, which is thirteen inches long by seven 

 and one half inches broad, and is suspended eleven inches 

 form the floor. The supply of food material falling on the 

 tray is regulated by a balance system. The tray is so 



1 Papers from the Division of Biology, No. 5. Published August, 1909. 



