HONEY-GUIDES — FRIEDMANN 311 



and three large yolked ova and two ruptured follicles in the ovary, 

 indicating that at least five eggs could have been laid. 



Additional Host Records 



Our knowledge of the life histories of all the honey-guides is still so 

 imperfect that it is to be expected that additions to the lists of known 

 victims will be made for a long time to come. Besides these new host 

 species, further data on previously poorly documented ones have also 

 come to attention in the past three years. The total supplementary 

 data, presented here under the various species of honey-guides, do 

 not change the present picture materially but merely add to the total 

 recorded information and help to orient more properly some of the 

 earlier information. 



1. Scaly- throated honey-guide. Indicator variegatus 



One additional host has been recorded for this still infrequently 

 observed honey-guide. The case is of sufficient interest to quote the 

 original account in some detail. 



Jackson's tinker-bird, Pogoniulus bilineatus jacksoni (Sharp) 



Van Someren (1956, p. 220) writes that 



... at another nest I knew to hold young, I noted fresh chippings on the 

 ground and thought perhaps another hole was being started, but there was no 

 such cavity. Sitting down in cover, I heard dull tapping coining from the nest 

 hole, then noticed chippings coming out .... With a sharp knife, I cut a 

 circular opening . . . and exposed the nest. The chamber and tunnel had been 

 considerably enlarged and within was a three-quarters grown variegated honey- 

 guide. It was remarkable that the hen honey-guide had been able to force her 

 way in and lay her egg in the original small chamber, and moreover, how did the 

 barbets come to appreciate that the chamber was too small to accommodate the 

 chick! Yet, here they were, enlarging the chamber to ensure the comfort of their 

 foster child! I replaced the circle of wood and sealed it in. The young honey- 

 guide was seen in the forest two weeks later, attended by the foster parents . . . 



It is fortunate that, in this case, the young parasite was feathered 

 sufficiently to make its identification certain. In my book (1955, p. 

 105) I listed one record for the Uganda race of this tinker-bird, 

 Pogoniulus bilineatus nyansae (Neumann), and echoed Jackson's 

 (1938, p. 734) doubts that either Indicator variegatus or /. indicator 

 could possibly get inside the small nest opening to lay there, or that 

 the young parasite, when ready to leave, could get out through it. It 

 now appears that our doubts were needless. Van Someren (1956, 

 p. 221) writes that he has seen a "variegated honey-guide struggling 

 into a hole scarcely large enough for her to enter." 



2. Greater honey-guide. Indicator indicator 



The new data on this, the best known of the honey-guides, whose 

 recorded hosts now number 32 species, or, including subspecies, 38 

 forms, are as follows: 



