32 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a dead elephant. "Ha," he said, "this is going to be my new home." 

 He was happy about finding so much food, and then thought of calling 

 his relatives and friends. So he made a mark on the carcass and went 

 off to tell them about it. In his absence a mouse found the elephant 

 and also decided to make his home there, and began to nibble away 

 at the huge body. On his return with his friends, the bird saw that 

 the mouse had installed himself, and tried to evict him, saying, "This 

 is my place." The mouse replied, "No, it is mine." They then 

 fought over it, and afterwards decided to take the matter to a judge, 

 who happened to be a bee. The bee said, "It is the mouse's food." 

 The bird argued that he had found it first and called attention to the 

 mark he had made on it before the mouse came. The judge said "You 

 are lying; it is the mouse's property." From that day to the present 

 the honey-guides and bees hate each other, and that is why the birds 

 lead men to destroy the bees' nests. 



The Bambemba, a Bantu tribe in the Northern Province of Northern 

 Rhodesia, carry the heart of a honey-guide with other medicines in a 

 horn when looking for honey (Brelsford, 1941). Many tribes will not 

 kiU a honey-guide, and formerly inflicted severe penalties for such 

 an act, but it would seem that the Bambemba may do so to obtain the 

 heart. 



Typical guiding behavior ^ 



When the bird is ready to begin guiding it either comes to a person 

 and starts a repetitive series of churring notes or it stays where it 

 is and begins calling these notes and waits for the human to approch 

 it more closely. These churring notes are very similar to the sound 

 made by shaking a partly full, small matchbox rapidly lengthwise. 

 If the bird comes to the person to start leading him, it flies about 

 within 15 to 50 feet from him, calling constantly, and fanning its tail, 

 displaying the white outer rectrices. If it waits for the potential 

 follower to approach it for the trip to begin, it usually perches on a 

 fairly conspicuous branch, churring rapidly, fanning its tail, and 

 slightly arching and ruffling its wings so that at times its yellow 

 "shoulder" bands are visible. As the person comes to within 15 to 

 50 feet from it, the bird flies off with an initial conspicuous downward 

 dip, with its lateral rectrices widely spread, and then goes off to 

 another tree, not necessarily in sight of the follower, in fact more often 

 out of sight than not. Then it waits there, churring loudly until the 

 follower again nears it, when the action is repeated. This goes on until 



^ By "typical" behavior is meant behavior when leading a human being; we 

 still have no detailed data on the behavior when leading a ratel, but there is no 

 reason for assuming any very significant difference. The data here given refer 

 to Indicator indicator. 



