Food preferences in the pigeon (Columba livia).

Pigeons offered a choice among several different types of seed presented separately in substantial quantities, show individual patterns of seed selection behavior which persist over prolonged periods. The relations among several different measures of selection were examined under a variety of presentation conditions and following experimental manipulations (food deprivation or trigeminal deafferentation) designed, respectively, to increase and decrease hunger. Different measures of selection were differentially affected by the manipulations, suggesting that they reflect the operation of different causal mechanisms. The results indicate that the pigeon's selection behavior is controlled by many of the same processes that normally control its quantitative intake.