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Show 118 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. PART li. "true breeding if a game-cock in good health and con" clition runs the locality, for almost every bon on leaving "tho roosting-place will resort to the game-cock, even "though that bird may not actually drive away the malo " of her own variety." TJ nder ordinary circumstances the males and females of the fowl seem to come to a mutual understanding by means of certain gestures, described to me by Mr. Brent. But hens will often avoid the officious attentions of young males. Old hens, and hens of a pugnacious disposition, as the same writer informs me, dislike strange males, and will not yield until well beaten into compliance. Ferguson: howerer, describes bow a quarrelsome hen w<1s subtl~ed by the gentle courtship of a Shanghai cock.20 There is reason to believe that pigeons of both sexes prefer pairing with birds of the same breed ; and dovecot- pigeons dislike all the highly improved breeds.21 Mr. Harrison Weir has lately heard from a trustworthy observer, who keeps blue pigeons, that thes.e drive away all other coloured varieties, such as white, red, tt,nd yellow ; and from another observer, that a female dun carrier could not be matched, after repeated trials, with a black male, but immediately paired with a dun. Generally colour alone appears to have little influence on tho pairing of pigeons. Mr. Tegetmeier, at my request, stained some of his birds with magenta, but they wore not much noticed by the others. Female pigeons occasionally feel a strong antipathy towards certain males, without any assignable cause. Thus MM. Boitard and C01·bie, whose experience oxtended over forty-five years, state: "Quand une fcrncllc ~o 'Rare and Prize Poultry,' 1854, p. 27. 21 'Tho Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. p. lOR. ( 'H.U' . XIV. PREFERENCE BY THE FEliALE. 119 " eprOUVC flo l'antipathio pour un malo avec lcquol Oil "veut l'accoupler, malgrc tous los foux do l'amour, " malgre l'alpiste ot lo chenovis dont ou ht noun·it "pour augmonter son ardeur, malgre un omprisonne" ment de six mois ot meme d'un an, elle refuse con" stamment ses caresses; los avances emprosseos, les " agaceries, les tournoiemens, les tendres roucoulomens, "rion ne peut lui plaire ni l'emouvoir; gonfleo, bou" dense, blottie clans un coin de sa prison, elle n'cn sort "que pour boiro et manger, ou pour 1·epousser avec une '' espece de rage des caresses d.evonues trop pressantes." 22 On the other hand, Mr. Harrison Weir bas himself observed, and bas beard 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, Riedel,23 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.24 Here is a more curious case. .Sir H. Heron during many years kept an account of the habits of tho peafowl, which he bred in largo numbers. He states that ~~ Boitard and Corbic, 'Los Pigeons,' 1824, p. 12. Prosper Lucas (' Traitc de l'Hered. Nat.' tom. ii. 1850, p. 296) has Jumsclf observed .nearly similar facts with pigeons. ~:s 'Die Taubenzucht,' 1824, s. 8G. 24 'Ornithological Biography,' vol. i. p. 13. |