314 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MTJSEXJM vol, los 



Although only of suggestive interest, mention may be made of the 

 fact that in Ghana, between Accra and Kumasi, early in June, Donald 

 W. Lamm (in litt.) watched a colony of brown barbets, Gymnohucco 

 calvus, ready to begin breeding. At least four lesser honey-guides 

 (Indicator minor ussheri) were present. They were very quiet, 

 perching on the heavier branches of the trees, and showed no attempts 

 to enter any of the nest holes. Two of them, a male and a female, 

 were collected, both with well-developed gonads. This observation 

 suggests that this species of barbet, as well as Gymnohucco bonapartei 

 (already so recorded by Friedmann, 1955, p. 193), may be a host of 

 the lesser honey-guide. 



4. Slender-billed honey-guide, Prodotiscus insignis 



To the little known information about the hosts of this honey-guide 

 previously compiled by me (1955, pp. 251-252) may be added further 

 details of the cases there described, as well as one additional host 

 species. Like the previous data, the new observations all stem from 

 Dr. van Someren. 



Black- throated wattle-eye, Platysteira peltata peltata Sundevall. 



Of this host all I was able to report previously (Friedmann, 1955, 

 p. 251) was the bare fact that van Someren had once found a para- 

 sitized nest. He (van Someren, 1956, pp. 281-283) recently supplied 

 more data, of which the following is a summary. When the nest was 

 found, it contained just the young honey-guide, dark brown with a 

 yellow gape, and quite naked. "The chick grew rapidly and on the 

 fourth daj'' of observation was well feathered on the head and back. 

 It was then that I saw that . . . the plumage being gradually 

 assumed was the olive green of a pigmy honey-guide. . . . The 

 youngster was now receiving quite large moth larvae, imago moths, 

 and dozens of small Diptera." Shortly afterwards some predator 

 robbed the nest and ended the opportunity for further observation. 



Kikuyu green white-eye, Zosterops virens kikuyuensis (Sharpe) 



To the case I previously recorded (Friedmann, 1955, p. 252) merely 

 as having two young slender-billed honey-guides in the nest, van 

 Someren's (1956, pp. 222-223) additional data provide the folloA\'ing 

 details. He found one of the young parasites just out of the nest on 

 the ground near his house. As he was looking to see what nest it 

 maj^ have come from, he saw one of the white-eyes fly with food to a 

 chick in a nest directly above the spot where he had picked up the 

 fledgling. When his son climbed to the nest, the chick in it fluttered 

 to the ground; it was found to be another slender-billed honey-guide. 

 Van Someren put the two young bu*ds in a cage, to which both parent 

 white-eyes came with food for the next two days. The next night 

 it rained very heavily and, as a result, one of the chicks died. The 



