3IO ANIMAL DEFENCES 



The other case is much more remarkable. Among the Birds 

 inhabiting the Austro-Malay islands (i.e. the eastern half of the 

 East Indies) are weak Orioles and comparatively powerful Friar- 

 Birds or Honey-eaters, which are provided with strong beaks 

 and claws. Each of the large islands possesses its own peculiar 



Fig. 487. A Friar-Bird (Philemon Timor laoensis], right, mimicked by an Oriole (Oriolus decipiens}, left 



species of Friar- Bird, and also a species of Oriole corresponding to 

 it in appearance and thereby enjoying, it is believed, a less worried 

 existence than would otherwise be the case. Forbes discovered 

 such a pair in Timor-laut (Oriolus decipiens and Philemon Timor- 

 laoensis) (fig. 487), and (in A Naturalist's Wanderings in the 

 Eastern Archipelago] speaks of them as follows: " For some 

 time I was quite puzzled by the difference of behaviour of certain 

 individuals in flocks of these Birds [i.e. Honey-eaters] on the 

 trees. Only after the closest comparison of the dead Birds in 

 my hand was the enigma solved by my perceiving that the Birds 

 were distinct species of widely -removed families, and I learned 



