Ovarian activity of female ring doves (Streptopelia risoria) exposed to marginal stimuli from males

Abstract

Although previous studies have indicated that male displays promote ovulation in the female ring dove, it was unknown whether perception of the male's structural features was an essential prerequisite for the response. In the present study, females were exposed to the shadow of a courting male or to his vocalization alone. Vocalization itself was ineffective in inducing ovulation, but half of the females provided with the additional visual stimulus laid eggs. It is suggested that perception of the feather and color patterns of the male are not essential conditions for the female's response.

Interactions between visual and vocal courtship stimuli in the neuroendocrine response of female doves.

“…The second part of the hypothesis, i.e., the female must recognize that the male's behavior is contingent upon her own for maximal ovarian development, is new and is currently under test in this laboratory. Contrary to various previous proposals (Lambe & Erickson, 1973;Lorenz, 1950), this hypothesis implies that the female's brain is not just a passive accumulator of redundant feature-detection events during courtship but that it must detect stimuli from the male that are contingent upon her own efferent activity. The female is more than a mere passive recipient of male-originated auditory and visual stimuli and does not have maximum ovarian development unless she is an active partner in courtship activities.…”

AN INEXPENSIVE RANDOM‐ACCESS PROJECTOR FOR RAPID PRESENTATION OF PICTORIAL IMAGES1

“…Event record "A" (below) shows the sixth food presentation of that session as well as the target responses and changes in the position of the pictorial image that followed that presentation. Looney and Cohen, 1974), this inexpensive, randomaccess projector would be valuable for studying pictorial control of other behaviors such as operant responding (eg., Butler and Woolpy, 1963;Thompson, 1964), sign-tracking, imprinted responses, and reproductive behavior (Lambe and Erickson, 1973 …”