MINA—MOA 575 
very stout—the difficulty of telling one from the other would be 
exceedingly great,! and according to the canon laid down by Mr. 
Wallace Zy/as must be the mimic, because if it be allied to Hypsi- 
petes, it has wholly thrown off the sombre and inconspicuous 
coloration of that genus to assume one that is of a very normal 
Shrike-like character. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that all cases of close simi- 
larity of plumage are not necessarily cases of Mimicry. Of this 
the genera Sturnella (MEADOW-LARK) and Macronyx (KALKOENTJE) 
are examples, for these, the latter being a peculiarly African and 
the former a peculiarly American form, have no points of contact, 
any more than have the Snowy Petrel of the Antarctic and the 
equally white Ivory-Gull of the Arctic Seas. In these cases 
Mimicry is impossible, but even where it is not only possible but 
even probable, we must always remember that the Mimicry, how- 
ever produced, is wnconscious. 
MINA or MINOR, see GRACKLE. 
MINIVET, Blyth’s name, since adopted by Anglo-Indian writers, 
for birds of the genus Pericrocotus, a beautiful group of some 20 
species or more, wherein the males are generally black and rose- 
colour and the females grey and saffron, the tints differing in the 
several forms, while a few have no bright colouring at all. The 
range of the genus extends from Affghanistan through India, 
Burma and China to Manchuria and Japan on the north, and to 
Java and Lombock on the south, and some of the islands, as 
Loochoo and Hainan, seem to have peculiar species. Pericrocotus 
appears to belong to the group containing CAMPEPHAGA, if that be 
regarded as distinct from the Laniidz, as it probably is. 
MIRE-DROMBLE and MIRE-DRUM, local names of the 
BITTERN. 
MISSEL-BIRD or MISSEL-THRUSH, vulgar corruptions of 
Mistletoe-bird or Mistletoe-THRUSH. 
MOA, supposed to be the Maori name for the extinct Ratite 
birds comprehending the genus Dinornis and its allies ;* and now 
1 Xenopirostris pollent and all the forms of Zylas are described and well 
figured in M. Grandidier’s great work just cited (pp. 4382-434, pls. 169, 170 A. fig. 
2, 170 B. fig. 2; pp. 376, 379, pls. 141, fig. 2, 141 A. fig. 2, 143, 144, 144 A.) 
2 The word, however, has several other meanings, and Sir James Hector has 
kindly communicated to this work the suggestion that applied to a Bird it was 
probably sounded more like Morah, as latterly pronounced by the natives of the 
South Island, for it had dropped out of use among the northern tribes, from 
whom the vocabulary was collected by the early missionaries, one of whom 
(Bishop Hadfield) said that not conceiving, when so engaged, the former existence 
of so large a bird, he had never been able to obtain the precise meaning of the 
word, and it is impossible now to be certain as to its sound. 
