PROTECTIVE MIMICEY. 241 



tlaat magnificent series of illustrated volumes upon Ornitliology 

 associated with Gould's name. Both birds are black and white, 

 and the sexes diifer in both species. As the honey-eater is 

 totally unlike in colour to other honey-eaters, this bird should 

 be the mimicking form. 



Curiously enough, it is the male, and not the female, which 

 has adopted the mimetic livery. Attention has been already 

 directed to the fact that, among butterflies, mimicry, if not 

 shown in both sexes, is restricted to the female ; this is, 

 of course, explained by the greater need for protection of the 

 females, upon whom devolve the most serious cares connected 

 with the continuance of the life of the species. It is, in fact, 

 most likely that the resemblances between the Melicophila and 

 the Petroica are purely accidental, or related to circumstances 

 of which we have at jn-esent no knowledge whatever. 



There are numerous other examples which might, did space 

 allow, have been brought forward, ilr. Wallace himself has 

 instanced the mimicry of the aggressive Friar birds by the 

 weak Orioles. Here some advantage would appear to accrue 

 to the mimicking species. 



The foregoing pages contain a number of instances, which 

 could easily have been multiplied, of resemblances in colour 

 and form of varying degree, between animals more or less 

 remotely allied, which seem to confer no particular advantage 

 upon either. 



There are other instances where such resemblances occur, 

 and are positively disadvantageous to the mimicker. 



Mimicry may bs in Certain Cases even Disadvantageous. 



Attention has been directed to the singular mimicry of 

 hymenopterous insects afforded by certain species of moths 



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