Abstract
IN the discussion which followed the papers by Dr. J. R. Baker and Mr. R. M. Ranson and Prof. T. H. Bissonette, read before the Royal Society on Feb. 4, I suggested that their conclusions concerning light as a factor in sexual periodicity involved a principle of wide application. Dr. Baker had referred in his paper to the practical application of this principle by the poultry industry, and I remarked that Mr. Hammond had pointed out to me that it was possible to construct graphs for the principal countries of the world showing a well-marked correlation throughout the year between egg production and the incidence of daylight. I stated further that the effects of artificial illumination were known also to breeders of canaries and other cage-birds, and that within my own experience the collared turtle-dove which has been kept under conditions of domestication for many generations will breed freely under ordinary room conditions in mid-winter under the added stimulus of artificial light in the evenings. I might have added that in tropical countries where environmental conditions are similar throughout the year, such as the Cameroons, the native birds have no restricted breeding season but breed at any time. Moreover, in the case of the Brent goose and various other species of geese, although pinioned birds may be kept for years in a state of perfect health in semi-captivity, they never or very rarely breed, and I suggested that such birds require the stimulus of prolonged daylight, which they obtain in their normal breeding habitat within the arctic circle, in order to excite the activity of the reproductive organs.
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Proc. Roy. Soc., 1930.
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MARSHALL, F. Light as a Factor in Sexual Periodicity. Nature 129, 344 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129344b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129344b0
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