PLASMA TESTOSTERONE IN COURTING AND INCUBATING MALE BARBARY DOVES (STREPTOPELIA RISORIA)

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Abstract
MRC Unit on the Development and Integration of Behaviour, Madingley, Cambridge and Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Cambridge, CB3 8AA (Received 16 October 1974) Male behaviour during the reproductive cycle of the Barbary dove begins with courtship behaviour and, after a series of behavioural transitions, progresses to incubation. Male courtship appears to be androgen-dependent because it can be restored in castrated birds by systemic or intrahypothalamic administration of testosterone propionate (Hutchison, 1971). However, progesterone is thought to be causally related to the termination of courtship and the onset of incubation behaviour (Lehrman, 1965). The objects of the present study were to determine (a) whether testosterone (T) is present in the peripheral blood plasma of courting male doves, and (b) whether T levels are similar to those of incubating males when progesterone is thought to be functionally active. Because there is evidence in the male for a transition early in the

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