234 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



which it certainly would have hunted to death had 

 not the keeper removed it ; and the Green Cardinal 

 (Gubernatrix cristata) has a bad name among 

 fanciers for spitefulness to birds of similar colours. 



I have above commented (Chapter V) on the 

 alarm shown by birds at the sight of young Cuckoos, 

 though it may well be pleaded that as the 

 pattern is the striking point here, the evidence is 

 not necessarily in favour of colour-vision ; nor 

 need colour-vision to be postulated to account for 

 terror which the mixed birds in the Western 

 Aviary at the Zoo have shown in my presence at 

 the Grey Touracou (Schizorhis concolor), or the 

 Parrots in the large Parrot Aviary at the dark-slate 

 Vasa Parrot (Coracopsis vasa), both birds of colora- 

 tion which, although uniform, is met with in some 

 birds of prey. 



I have witnessed sympathetic attraction of 

 colour, or at any rate markings, when in Calcutta 

 I turned a specimen of the Silver- eared Mesia 

 (Mesia argentauris) into a large flight-cage with a 

 mixed collection, and saw that it at first associated 

 with the Black-capped Sibia (Malacias capistratis) 

 and White-eared Bulbul (Molpastes leucotis), before 

 finding out its really near relative, the Pekin Robin. 



The House-Crows in Calcutta used to get very 

 excited when they saw a live or dead bird handled 

 which showed much black or dark colour, using 

 the same cries and gestures as they employed when 

 seeing one of their own kind handled ; I have 

 seen this when the subject was a Muscovy Duck, a 



