Normal and irrelevant toilet behaviour in Emberiza Spp.

Abstract

Summary The toilet behaviour patterns of Emberiza spp. are described. The peripheral stimuli important in their causation include foreign material on the feathers, bill or legs, disarray of the feathers, irritation in the respiratory passages, and a rise in the air temperature. Cases in which toilet behaviour is not caused in a general reflex-like way by peripheral stimuli are discussed. The general association together of toilet behaviour patterns is related to the fairly continuous presence of the appropriate peripheral stimuli, so that all the patterns tend to be given whenever other motivations are weak. The irrelevant occurrences of toilet behaviour are described. Feather-settling tends to occur at the change from one type of activity to another. Possibly when incompatible tendencies are so equally balanced that they cannot be overtly expressed, a weak tendency to give a toilet behaviour pattern can result in its being given irrelevantly. The irrelevant carrying of nest material in courtship depends chiefly on central causal factors.