32 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



STRAY NOTES ON MIMICRY. 



By Charles A. Witchell. 



Prof. Newton's limitation of mimicry to the status of 

 unconscious resemblance (c/. Zool. 1899, p. 529) is in accord 

 with that prevailing tone of thought which denies to the lower 

 animals the power of abstract reasoning so constantly evident in 

 man. I hope that Mr. Distant will not conclude his highly 

 interesting treatment of the mimetic faculty without some refer- 

 ence to vocal mimicry,* for this demonstrates (as it would seem, 

 beyond dispute) the occurrence of a desire on the part of certain 

 animals to do something that another animal is doing or has 

 done, solely for the purpose of mimicking it. The Parrot is a 

 common instance ; but the Starling is, I think, a better one, 

 since the studies of the latter bird are purely voluntary, and have 

 no possible reference to the furnishing of a supply of food by a 

 human owner. The Sedge- Warbler, with its construction of 

 novel strains by the repetition of some notes of other birds in a 

 set order, is another instance of a bird exhibiting a voluntarily 

 exercised mimetic faculty. If a bird's mimicry is unconscious, 

 then all its other actions may be unconscious, and the creature an 

 automaton, which is absurd, except on the hypothesis that man 

 also is one. But we must not hastily assume that similarity of 

 action indicates mimicry ; it may suggest inheritance as the 

 governing factor. Take the case of the hissing of nesting birds. 

 The hissing of these birds seems generally to be the ultimate 

 expression of hate and rage,t and to have no intended reference 

 or similarity to that great enemy of the nest — the snake ; for a 

 bird will hiss when on the nest, and at no other time, and which 

 has yet never seen a snake, or, apparently, never heard a hiss : 

 such is a town- bred fowl or duck. The Blue Tit, again, hisses 



* This has been referred to. Cf. Zool. 1889, p. 476.— Ed, 

 I have everywhere noticed that in expressing rage birds tend to revert 

 to generic cries. Young children, in the same mental trouble, perform some 



Monkey -like actions, and utter cries like those of Monkeys. 



