Ornithological and Other Oddities 



both birds having long tails and short wings, 

 black upper plumage and chestnut flanks ; while 

 in the hens of both the black upper-parts are 

 replaced by brown. The resemblance is quite 

 near enough for mimicry, yet under the circum- 

 stances it can be of no avail, even if there were 

 any reason why one of these species should 

 imitate the other. 



Several other less striking instances of this 

 false mimicry could be given ; thus, the American 

 oven-bird (Furnarius rufus), made so familiar 

 to us by Mr. Hudson's works, exactly resembles 

 our nightingale in plumage, although a bigger 

 bird and rather differently shaped ; while our 

 magpie is well copied in colour by two much 

 smaller birds, the dhyal or magpie-robin of India 

 {Copsycfais saularis) and the magpie -tanager 

 {Cissopis leveriana) of South America. More- 

 over, the beautiful starling of the Andamans 

 {Sturnia andamanensis) so resembles a gull in 

 the arrangement of its colours, — white body, 

 grey back, black quills, and yellow bill and feet 

 — that if only it were bigger, and if gulls were 

 common in the seas around its home, it might be 

 set down as a mimic too ! 



Our common domestic birds show by their 



casual variations the great changes in appearance, 



by variation alone, which might produce under 



favourable circumstances a serviceable mimetic 



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