316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. io8 



base of a tree from which swarms of bees were flying. As long as the 

 bird kept calling, the genet remained motionless, but soon it disap- 

 peared up to its shoulders down the hole, apparently not minding the 

 bees. In a short while, it backed out with a small piece of beescomb 

 which it proceeded to eat. Neuby-Varty then moved to a better posi- 

 tion on a termite mound about 30 yards from the genet, from which 

 spot he watched it for about half an hour as it repeatedly inserted its 

 paw into the hole, pulled out pieces of comb, and proceeded to eat 

 them. Then the wind changed and the genet must have scented the 

 observer and it slunk off into the tall grass and was gone. Exam- 

 ination of the hole convinced Neuby-Varty that it was not dug by the 

 genet but may have been the work of a jackal or possibly a mongoose 

 or a ratel, although he has never seen the last named animal on his land. 



In the above incident, there is no evidence that the bird had guided 

 the genet to the hive, which apparently had been opened previously. 

 It is more lilvely that the bird was attracted to the spot because of the 

 bees, and its interest was then transferred to the genet that had come 

 there independently and which, by virtue of its feeding there, actually 

 kept the bird from domg the same. After the genet had left, the bird 

 called intermittently for about 10 minutes and Neuby-Varty waited 

 another 20 minutes to see if the beast would return. In those 30 

 minutes, the bird hopped down to the ground only once and pecked 

 at tiny bits of comb. 



We still have too few observations of associations between the 

 greater honey-guide and various mammals, but it does seem that ob- 

 servations such as this one, or the one involving the mongoose, and 

 even the baboon incident recorded earlier (Friedm.ann, 1955, pp. 45- 

 46), hardly justify looking upon these creatures as definitely proved 

 symbionts of the bird in the sense that ratels and humans are. 



The Termination of Guiding Behavior 



In my detailed account (Friedmann, 1955, pp. 25-71) I stated that 

 the stimulus which appears to bring to a halt the guiding behavior, 

 released earlier by the bird meeting with a potential foraging symbiont 

 such as a ratel or a human, "is the sight or sound of bees. It is tempt- 

 ing to expand van Uexkiill's and Lorenz's fruitful concept of the 

 'kumpan,' or companion, as the releaser of instinctive actions in birds 

 and apply it to the honey-guides .... From this standpoint guiding 

 may be looked upon as the result of the reactions evoked in the bird 

 when the releasing agent is met with in the bird's natural environment, 

 away from the bees' nest, for which it is the 'kumpan,' and the 'guid- 

 ing' behavior is 'satisfied' or, at least, brought to a stop when the bird 

 brings together the 'bee companion' and the bees." While I still think 



