A FUTILE RESEMBLANCE 205 



get brought up all right, in spite of the absence of 

 resemblance to the fosterers' true young, and of 

 the presence of a resemblance to the most hated 

 and feared of birds. 



Resemblances to some other bird than a near 

 ally seem to be a marked peculiarity of the Cuckoo 

 family ; not only do some of the parasitic Cuckoos 

 look like Hawks, and at least one, as we have seen, 

 rather like a Drongo, but the largest of this type, 

 the Channel-bill, is so like a Hornbill that it was 

 early described as one — ^yet there are no Hornbills 

 in Australia, where this bird occurs, and the nearest 

 Hornbill, found in New Guinea, is not that which 

 the Channel-bill resembles, the likeness being to 

 some of the small grey Indian species. 



A parasitic Cxickoo may even resemble a non- 

 parasitic one, as in the case of the crested Coccystes 

 coromandus, which is coloured just like a non- 

 parasitic " Crow-Pheasant " {Centrofus monachus), 

 though the former is Indian and the latter African, 

 so that an excellent case of what is called in insects 

 " MuUerian mimicry " falls to the ground. It 

 would be just as well for parasitic Cuckoos if they 

 did get mistaken for stronger birds, as they are 

 often bullied, even by species which they do not 

 infest, but feom what has been said, there does 

 not seem to be any really definite development of 

 this mimicry in appearance. 



