she was a valuable bird, she was then shut up for many weeks with a
silver (i.e., very pale blue) male, and at last mated with him.
Nevertheless, as a general rule, colour appears to have little
influence on the pairing of pigeons. Mr. Tegetmeier, at my request,
stained some of his birds with magenta, but they were not much noticed
by the others.
Female pigeons occasionally feel a strong antipathy towards certain
males, without any assignable cause. Thus MM. Boitard and Corbie, whose
experience extended over forty-five years, state: Quand une femelle
eprouve de l antipathie pour un male avec lequel on veut l accoupler,
malgre tous les feux de l amour, malgre l alpiste et le chenevis dont
on la nourrit pour augmenter son ardeur, malgre un emprisonnement de
six mois et meme d un an, elle refuse constamment ses caresses; les
avances empressees, les agaceries, les tournoiemens, les tendres
roucoulemens, rien ne peut lui plaire ni l emouvoir; gonflee, boudeuse,
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. (23. Boitard and Corbie, Les Pigeons, etc., 1824,
p. 12. Prosper Lucas ( Traite de l Hered. Nat. tom. ii. 1850, p. 296)
has himself observed nearly similar facts with pigeons.) 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, Riedel (24. Die
Taubenzucht, 1824, s. 86.), 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 domesticated females, and are generally received
by them with great pleasure. So that these females apparently prefer
the wild to their own males. (25. Ornithological Biography, vol. i.
p. 13. See to the same effect, Dr. Bryant, in Allen s Mammals and
Birds of Florida, p. 344.)
Here is a more curious case. Sir R. Heron during many years kept an
account of the habits of the peafowl, which he bred in large numbers.
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