No. 515] BEHAVIOR OF THE DOMESTIC FOWL 671 



ing continues as long as there is material left in the box 

 and there are fowls to eat from the tray. 



The material contained in the automatic feeder is usu- 

 ally a mixture of bran, wheat, and whole corn. While both 

 the hens and the cockerel eat a fair amount of the bran 

 constituent, they like the grain, especially the whole corn, 

 much better. This predilection is exhibited especially by 

 the cockerel, which attempts to obtain a minimum amount 

 of the bran and a maximum amount of the corn. Usu- 

 ally there are from four to eight hens, together with the 

 cockerel, attempting to feed from the tray at the same 

 time. As a consequence, the grain, which is mixed with 

 the bran, is in the tray but a short time before it is 

 eaten, and nothing but the bran remains. When this 

 condition has come about the cockerel proceeds to "work" 

 the feeder. This is accomplished in the following 

 manner. 



As shown in Fig. 1, the cockerel while eating almost 

 invariably stands at the left-hand corner of the feeder. 

 At this point he usually feeds from the corner of the tray, 

 while the hens feed from both sides or from the ends, some 

 of them standing between the feed-tray and the wall, 

 where there is a free space of ten and one half inches. As 

 soon as the corn has all been eaten the cockerel steps 

 back sufficiently to clear the corner of the tray, takes a 

 few steps forward around the corner, raises its head high 

 and gives a vigorous push or peck to the beam desig- 

 nated (a) in Fig. 1. The force of this blow usually serves 

 to throw out the board slat which holds the food back in 

 the box; and, as a result, fresh material falls upon the 

 tray, the increased weight of which immediately closes 

 this outlet from the box. As soon as more corn has fallen 

 on the tray the cockerel hastily returns to his former 

 position at the corner of the tray and devours as many 

 of the kernels as possible before the hens have again 

 cleared the receptacle of grain; whereupon the cockerel 

 again leaves the tray and pecks the beam. The final re- 

 sult of this continuous performance is that the tray be- 



