CHAP. XXVII.] OF THE MOLUCCAS. 151 



which resemble wasps and hornets are the best examples 

 of " mimicry " in our own country. 



For a long time all the known cases of exact resem- 

 blance of one creature to quite a different one were con- 

 fined to insects, and it was therefore with great pleasure 

 that I discovered in the island of Bouru two birds which I 

 constantly mistook for each other, and which yet belonged 

 to two distinct and somewhat distant families. One of 

 these is a honeysucker named Tropidorhynchus bouruensis, 

 and the other a kind of oriole, which has been called Mimeta 

 bouruensis. The oriole resembles the honeysucker in the 

 following particulars : the upper and under surfaces of the 

 two birds are exactly of the same tints of dark and light 

 brown ; the Tropidorhynchus has a large bare black patch 

 round the eyes ; this is copied in the Mimeta by a patch of 

 black feathers. The top of the head of the Tropidorhyn- 

 chus has a scaly appearance from the narrow scale-formed 

 feathers, which are imitated by the broader feathers of the 

 Mimeta having a dusky line down each. The Tropido- 

 rhynchus has a pale ruff formed of curious recurved 

 feathers or^^the nape (which has given the whole genus the 

 name of Friar birds) ; this is represented in the Mimeta by 

 a pale band in the same position. Lastly, the bill of the 

 Tropidorhynchus is raised into a protuberant keel at the 

 base, and the Mimeta has the same character, although it is 

 not a common one in the genus. The result is, that on a 



