The Relationship Between the Various Mating Activities of the Female Domestic Fowl

Abstract

ABSTRACT SKARD (1937) listed ten classes of female mating behavior, ranging from acceptance to complete avoidance of the male, but Murchison (1935) and Guhl et al. (1945) recognized three major classes. These are crouching or sex invitation, avoidance of the male, and escaping from the male during an attempted mating. Phillips (1914) reported that the hen was the factor controlling compatibility. The male seemed to approach the hen regardless of her individuality and the completion of the mating was controlled by the hen. Upp (1927) found that there was great variation in the number of matings and apparently a definite preference was shown for certain hens. Guhl et al. (1945) observed the following correlations between various mating activities of females. A positive correlation of 0.56 (P>0.01) was obtained between rank in “sex invitation” and mating rank indicating that hens which “invite” the males more often were mated more often. They also . . .