Mimicry in Birds 
the two forms, and so, if the barred 
plumage became of mimetic value, it 
would have done so without the 
gradual evolution of a more and 
more marked resemblance insisted on 
by entomological theorists on this 
fascinating subject, but by the 
natural utilisation of a resemblance 
already existing; for a barred plu- 
mage Im young cuckoos is so very 
common that we may fairly take it 
in the crow-pheasant as the normal 
one, and the self-coloured young 
birds as more recent offshoots, since 
there is a strong tendency in birds 
for the young to drop thew in- 
mature plumage and assume at once 
that of the adult when this can be 
done with safety. 
That, although a merely general 
resemblance is enough to make an 
impression, details would need to be 
added in some cases is shown by the ~~ 
fact that where it is a matter of life or death to birds to know one similar species from 
another, they can distinguish them even where there is a considerable initial resemblance. 
Thus, the small kite-hke Hagle mentioned early in this article is distinguished at any rate 
by the House-Crows and Grey Babblers (Argya malcolmi) of India. his bird would 
possibly succeed as an imitation of the kite if it had the forked tail of that bird, 
and then might expect to deceive some species, though crows and babblers would 
probably, from thew social and raptor-hatmg instincts, give warning against the 
unusually vicious kite they would deem themselves to have discovered. 
But all birds are not equally intelligent, as I found when experimenting with 
their tastes in regard to “ warningly-coloured” butterflies and their mimics, and no 
doubt many a species, both of birds and insects, has had its fraudulent career as a 
mimic nipped in the bud by having to do with enemies or prey which were too 
observant to be long taken in by anything except an absolutely perfect imitation. 
BLACK-HEADED ORIOLE (India). 
ey 
OUR COLOURED PLATE. 
A TIGER IN THE JUNGLE. 
THat a Tiger in an Indian grass-jungle harmonises as regards coloration with its surroundings may be taken as 
an undoubted fact. The curious circumstance connected with this resemblance is, however, the fact that the 
animal is not an indigenous native of India, but an immigrant from the north, although not at such a 
comparatively recent epoch as has been suggested by a writer in the Zoological Society’s ‘‘ Proceedings.” The 
original home of the tiger is undoubtedly Korea, Mongolia, and Siberia; the occurrence of its fossilised remains in 
the New Siberian Islands demonstrating that at one time its range extended far within the Arctic Circle. In 
Korea, at any rate, where I am told tigers frequent scrub-thickets, the natural surroundings are quite different 
from those of an Indian grass-jungle; and it is possible that much the same holds good with regard to Siberia 
and Mongolia. Evidently, then, the tiger’s stripes; were not specially evolved in order to harmonise with the 
giant grasses in an Indian jungle. The true explanation is probably to be found in the circumstance that these 
vertical stripes, like those of the zebras, are for the purpose of breaking up the general solid form which 
would be presented by a uniformly orange-coloured body, and that their effect in affording concealment is 
equally good in either the open or in covert. Possibly the more numerous black stripes, which I think 
generally characterise the Indian race, may be a special minor adaptation to its environment.—R.L. 
