HONEY-GtHDES — FRIEDMANN 315 



other one continued to be fed by the foster parents and was last 

 seen in a tree nearby with the attendant white-eyes. Van Someren 

 concludes his account by stating that the original white-eyes' eggs 

 had been disposed of and that the honey-guide laid more than one 

 egg in the white-eyes' nest. In view of the relative scarcity of these 

 honey-guides, it does seem more probable that the two eggs in this 

 nest were laid by one hen rather than by two, but this is only an 

 inference. Similarly, we have no knowledge as to whether the 

 host's eggs were removed by the laying honey-guide or ousted by 

 the nestlings. In another place in his book, van Someren (1956, 

 p. 434) does state that the hen honey-guide removes the victim's 

 eggs one at a time when laying her own, but he gives no substantiating 

 evidence for this statement. 



Amethyst sunbird, Chalcomitra amethystina kalckreuthi (Cabanis) 



This sunbird is an addition to the known victims of the slender- 

 billed honey-guide. In November 1956, at Ngong, Kenya Colony, 

 G. R. C. van Someren saw a newly fledged young slender-billed honey- 

 guide being fed by both members of a pair of amethyst sunbirds. 

 He watched them for some time at a distance of less than 10 feet. 



Mammalian Symbionts 



It is well established that the original foraging symbiont of the 

 greater honey-guide is the ratel or honey-badger, Mellivora capensis, 

 and that the human has deliberately become a substitute symbiont in 

 its place. In my earlier account (1955, pp. 41-50) I gave some data 

 to indicate that very occasionally baboons might be involved, and 

 cited one instance of a bu-d apparently attempting in vain to evoke 

 response from a mongoose, Myonax cauui. Verheyen (1951, pp. 91-93; 

 1957, pp. 105-113), on the other hand, suggested that the honey-guide 

 may attempt to "call" to any or all of the larger mammals, between 

 which he assumed it could not or did not distinguish. I find it difficult 

 to agree with Verheyen in this matter and look upon the mongoose 

 incident as an occasional error on the bu-d's part. However, the fact 

 that as un-ratel-like a creature as the African human could become 

 accepted as a symbiont shows that there may be a basic symbiont 

 tolerance beyond what normally transpires. In this connection, it is 

 of interest to record the following incident involving a greater honey- 

 guide and a genet, kindly sent me by Bryan Neuby-Varty, who made 

 the observation on his farm near Marandellas, Southern Rhodesia. 



One day he was out in the brush when he heard a honey-guide calling 

 and wondered if it was calling to any creature. Moving carefully he 

 got behind a large tree and could see that it was watching a genet 

 (probably Genetta geneita mossamhica) on the ground at a hole at the 



