AGO Animal Life 
imaginable of the Indian Sparrow-Hawk or Shikra (Astur badiws). All the markings 
of the hawk are reproduced in the cuckoo, which is also of about the same size, and 
of similar proportions in the matter of tail and wing; and both hawk and cuckoo 
having a first plumage quite different from the one they assume when adult, the 
resemblance extends to that, too. Moreover, their flight is so much the same that 
unless one is near enough to see the beak, or can watch the bird settle and note 
the difference between the horizontal pose of the cuckoo and the erect bearing of the 
hawk, it is impossible to tell them apart on the wing. 
The Hawk-Cuckoo is parasitic upon the Babblers (See Antwan Lire, Vol. IL., 
page 196), and it has been observed that when it appears these birds absent themselves 
as speedily as possible, so that it has every chance of depositing its egg, which is 
blue like theirs, in security. Moreover, like the drongo-cuckoo, it no doubt profits in 
a general way by resembling a bird much stronger than itself. 
Dr. A. R. Wallace draws attention to the fact that one of the large ground- 
cuckoos of the Kast (Carpococcyx radiatus) bears a resemblance to a pheasant, and 
suggests that this similarity is useful to the bird. But the resemblance is not very 
close, and as this cuckoo is not parasitic and has a very strong bill of its own, there 
seems to be no reason why it should not be able to maintain itself without a disguise. 
Another set of small Eastern cuckoos have barred brown plumage, at any rate 
When young, which is much like that of young shrikes, and there are a cuckoo 
(Penthoceryx sonnerati) and a shrike (Lantus tigrinus) which always keep their zebra 
plumage. As shrikes are fierce little birds and uncommonly hard biters, and also wary 
and intelligent, the cuckoos may profit by wearing their livery. 
In Madagascar we find shrikes copied by other Passerine birds, much as the 
orioles resemble the friar-birds. The shrike, XNenopirostris pollent, is exactly copied by 
the harmless Bulbul, Tylas eduardi, and it is particularly noteworthy that both birds 
vary in the same way, the breast of each being indifferently white or buff. 
Having considered the cases in which a weaker bird copies a stronger one, we 
may turn to the “aggressive” mimicry of 
harmless birds by birds of prey which would 
be given a wide berth if their real character 
were known. 
The oldest known case of this kind is 
that in which a harmless insect-eating Hawk 
(Harpagus diodon) mhabiting the neighbour- 
hood of Rio de Janeiro is copied in that 
particular district by a Sparrow - Hawk 
(Accipiter pileatus), which there has a reddish- 
brown wing-lining like its model’s, but 
elsewhere a white one. This is a good in- 
stance, and there are several equally striking 
ones. In Celebes one of the fierce Hawk- 
Eagles (Spizdetus Jlanceolatus) exactly re- 
sembles in both young and adult plumages 
the harmless Honey-Buzzard (Pernis celeb- 
ensis) of the same country. 
In India a small but fierce Hagle 
(Hierdetus pennatus) much resembles in size 
and colour the lazy carrion-feeding Pariah 
Ay Kite (Mftluus govinda), though it has not the 
war forked tail of that bird. 
BOURU FRIAR-BIRD. 
