XIY. 
FEEI^ERENCE BY THE FEMALE. 
119 
eprouve de I’antipatliie pour un male avec leq^uel on 
vent Taccoupler, malgre tous les feux de I’amour, 
malgre Talpiste et le chenevis dont on la nourrit 
pour augmenter son ardeur, malgre un emprisonne- 
ment de six mois et meme d’un an, elle refuse con- 
stamment ses caresses ; les avances empressees, les 
agaceries, les tournoiemens, les tendres roucoulemens, 
rien ne pent lui plaire ni Temouvoir ; gonflee, bou- 
deuse, blottie dans un coin de sa prison, elle n’en sort 
que pour boire et manger, ou pour repousser avec une 
‘‘ espece 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 occasionally take a strong fancy for 
a particular male, and will desert her own mate for 
him. Some females, according to another experienced 
observer, Kiedel,^^ are of a profligate disposition, and 
prefer almost any stranger to their own mate. Some 
amorous males, called by our English fanciers ^^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 
Audubon, sometimes pay their addresses to the domes- 
ticated 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 R. Heron during 
many years kept an account of the habits of the pea- 
fowl, which he bred in large numbers. He states that 
2- Boitard and Corbie, ‘ Les Pigeons,’ 1824, p. 12. Prosper Lucas 
Traite de I’Hered. Xat.’ tom. ii. 1850, p. 296) has himself observed 
aiearly similar facts with pigeons. 
‘ Die Taubenzucht,’ 1824, s. 86. 
‘ Ornithological Biography,’ vol. i. p. 13. 
