Birds of the Indian Hills 



" Not only has our cuckoo the general contour 

 of Cooper's sparrow-hawk, but the tear-shaped 

 markings on the underparts, and the arrow-head 

 bars on the femoral plumes are exactly similar 

 in both. The resemblance is carried still 

 further, in the beautifully-banded tail and 

 marginal wing coverts, and likewise in the 

 distribution of colours and markings on the 

 sides of the neck. On turning to Mr. Sharpe's 

 description of the young male of this species 

 in his catalogue of the Accipitres in the British 

 Museum, it will be seen how many of the terms 

 employed apply equally to our Eudynamis, 

 even to the general words, ' deep brown above 

 with a chocolate gloss, all the feathers of the 

 upper surface broadly edged with rufous/ . . . 

 Beyond the general grouping of the colours 

 there is nothing to remind us of our own Bush- 

 hawk ; and that there is no great protective 

 resemblance is sufficiently manifested, from the 

 fact that our cuckoo is persecuted on every 

 possible occasion by the tits, which are timorous 

 enough in the presence of a hawk." 



These cases of chance resemblance should 

 make us unwilling to talk about " mimicry," 

 unless there is actual proof that one or other of 



the similar species benefits by the resemblance. 

 172 



