have twice been shot which presented some of the characters of the American Gallinago wilsoni."[1]
In Southern Africa the Anhinga (Plotus levaillanti, Licht.) affords a mimicry which is apparently purposeless. Le Vaillant himself, its discoverer, states:—"Indeed, there is no person who, upon seeing the head and neck only of an Anhinga, while the rest of the body is hid among the foliage of the tree on which it is perched, would not take it for one of those serpents accustomed to climb and reside in trees, and the mistake is so much the easier, as all its tortuous motions singularly favour the illusion."[2] This bird swims so low in the water that only its neck is to be seen; and, from observations in Natal, Mr. Ayres says that "in this position the bird might easily be taken, by those unacquainted with it, for a Water-snake."[3]
According to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, one of the most interesting of all birds is the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), not the least remarkable feature in its conformation being its great similarity to a Hawk, as not only shown by its colour and form, but also by its mode of flight, and which is so marked that the bird is always mobbed by smaller birds, as if it was really a Hawk.[4] Jefferies, who excelled as an observer, was clearly not of this opinion, and he thus writes on the subject:—"The Cuckoo flies so much like the Hawk, and so resembles it, as at the first glance to be barely distinguishable; but on watching more closely it will be seen that the Cuckoo flies straight and level, with a gentle fluttering of the wings, which never seem to come forward; so that in outline he resembles a crescent, the convex side in front. His tail appears longer in proportion, and more pointed; his flight is like that of a very large Swallow flying straight."[5] Again he remarks that birds "will pursue a Cuckoo exactly as they will a Hawk," but adds:—"I will not say that
- ↑ 'Trans. Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc' vol. vi. pp. 241–243.
- ↑ 'New Trav. Int. Parts Africa,' Engl, transl. vol. i. pp. 181–2.
- ↑ Cf. Layard's 'Birds of S. Africa,' Sharpe's edit. p. 783.
- ↑ 'Royal Nat. Hist.' vol. iv. p. 3.—It was a saying of Goethe that "there was a time when the study of natural history was so much behindhand that the opinion was universally spread that the Cuckoo was a Cuckoo only in summer, but in winter a bird of prey." ('Conversations of Goethe,' Engl, transl. new edit. p. 295.)
- ↑ 'Wild Life in a Southern County,' p. 252.
