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. He states that "the hens have frequently great preference to a particular peafowl. They were all so fond of an old pied cock, that one year, when he was confined, though still in view, they were constantly assembled close to the trellice-walls of his prison, and would not suffer a japanned peacock to touch them. On his being let out in the autumn, the oldest of the hens instantly courted him and was successful in her courtship. The next year he was shut up in a stable, and then the hens all courted his rival." (26. 'Proceedings, Zoological Society,' 1835, p. 54. The japanned peacock is considered by Mr. Sclater as a distinct species, and has been named Pavo nigripennis; but the evidence seems to me to show that it is only a variety.) This rival was a japanned or black-winged peacock, to our eyes a more beautiful bird than the common kind.
Lichtenstein, who was a good observer and had excellent opportunities of observation at the Cape of Good Hope, assured Rudolphi that the female widow-bird (Chera progne) disowns the male when robbed of the long tail- feathers with which he is ornamented during the breeding-season. I presume that this observation must have been made on birds under confinement. (27. Rudolphi, 'Beitrage zur Anthropologie,' 1812, s. 184.) Here is an analogous case; Dr. Jaeger (28. 'Die Darwin'sche Theorie, und ihre Stellung zu Moral und Religion,' 1869, s. 59.), director of the Zoological Gardens of Vienna, states that a male silver-pheasant, who had been triumphant over all other males and was the accepted lover of the females, had his ornamental plumage spoiled. He was then immediately superseded by a rival, who got the upper hand and afterwards led the flock.