You're Not Cuckoo: These Birds Look the Same Friday, May 09, 2008 - Ehud Rattner Home >> Headlines >> Gadgets
In Plutarch's Life of Aratus, the cuckoo asks a group of birds why they flee from him, as he is not ferocious. The birds answer that they're afraid of him, because one day he will be a hawk. Glance at a cuckoo and a sparrowhawk side by side, and it's easy to see how the ancient Greeks often confused the two species. Now, researchers have shown why Plutarch's frightened birds made the same mistake. (source)
