Occas'.onal Xotes. 53 



o£ this coloration, together with the habit referred to, are 

 obvious to anyone who has watched a Hawk working over 

 veld which is known to contain Quails. 



But when some of Mr. Haagner's other instances are ex- 

 amined it is not so easy to agree with his conclusions. 

 Whilst not claiming to be an ornithologist, I am interested 

 in the theory under discussion, and would beg leave to deal 

 with some of the cases of birds with which I am tolerably 

 familiar. 



Ploceid^e. — The fact that the females are generally 

 obscurely coloured does not necessarily imply that they are 

 protectively coloured. Mr. Haagner says their coloration 

 " renders them almost invisible to the casual eye." Perhaps 

 it does, but this fact by itself does not appear to me to be 

 sutficient reason for including these birds among cases of 

 Protective Resemblance. Can it be said that having regard 

 to their habits their coloration assimilates so closely to their 

 usual surroundings as to warrant the belief that it would 

 assist in concealing them from the vigilant eye of a hawk, 

 a snake, or a mungoose ? I think not. It may be pointed 

 out that in the case of the Bishop Birds or the Widow Birds, 

 the females, at the time when they most need concealment, 

 viz. during nesting, are concealed in domed nests. Again, 

 in winter, these birds are generally found in large flocks, and 

 are then active and fairly noisy birds, evidently relying more 

 on vigilance than on concealment for safety. 



Nectariniid^. — It seems to me quite impossible to cite 

 either the Black, the Scarlet-breasted, or the Malachite Sun- 

 birds as instances of Protective Resemblance, without unduly 

 straining the whole theory. No doubt these biids are some- 

 times difficult to distinguish amid some of their surroundings. 

 As Mr. Selous, in his latest book ' African Nature Notes and 

 Reminiscences,' says, " there is no colour in nature and no 

 combination of colours which at a certain distance, if stationary, 

 would not be found to harmonize well with some portion of 

 or objects in an African landscape." But such harmonizing 

 with surroundings is not necessarily Protective Resemblance. 



