Eating as a function of body weight and of hours deprivation

Five pigeons were allowed one hour of access to food after variable intervals of deprivation averaging 23 hours. Five other pigeons were allowed one hour of food after fixed 23 hour intervals. It was found that the amount eaten by birds in an environment continually alternating between deprivation and one-hour ad lib feeding could be better predicted as a linear function of their body weights than as a 2nd degree polynomial function of the number of hours they were deprived.