Ornithological and Other Oddities 



natural selection was only needed for the finish- 

 ing touches. Thus it may be doubted whether, 

 in the case of birds, the resemblances, though 

 probably useful enough now, were not altogether 

 accidental to start with, for there are just as 

 many startling resemblances where no theory 

 of mimicry will suffice ; the birds do not even 

 live in the same country in many cases. 



Thus, as Sir Walter Buller and Mr. F. E. 

 Beddard have pointed out, the one in his work 

 on the " Birds of New Zealand," and the other 

 in "Animal Coloration," the large cuckoo of 

 New Zealand {Urodynamis taitensis) is indeed 

 very like a hawk, but the species it most re- 

 sembles is not a New Zealand one, but Cooper's 

 hawk of North America (Acciftiter cooperi) ! 

 And it may be added that our own cuckoo 

 more resembles some of the tropical hawks of 

 the genus Baza than any British hawk. Several 

 kinds of Baza have the plain grey breast of 

 the cuckoo, and they are even called " cuckoo- 

 falcons " from their resemblance to that bird, 

 while the English sparrow-hawk is barred on 

 the breast ; the barring on the cuckoo not reach- 

 ing up so high, which renders its likeness to 

 that hawk decidedly imperfect. 



The great skuas (Megalestris) show a singular 



resemblance to birds of prey in their dark-brown 



plumage streaked with tawny on the neck, which 



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