Field Studies and Physiology: a Further Correlation

Abstract

IN a previous letter to NATURE¹ one of us directed attention to certain striking correlations between the findings independently arrived at by physiologists in the laboratory and students of bird behaviour in the field. Since then a further parallelism has come to light which it seems of sufficient interest to record. Wiesner and Sheard² state that partial removal of the prepituitary in adult male rats usually results in what they style partial diserotisation. The normal copulatory process consists in a definite and rapid sequence of acts. In partially hypophysectomised males, the sequence is usually slowed down and interrupted, consisting merely of hesitant acts of mounting, often abortively repeated many times.