34 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



gone about 600 yards when both birds stopped in a tree .... The 

 buzzing of passing bees was now traced to a small hole in the ground 

 close by ... . We prepared to make a fire, and our birds retired 

 noiselessly for the time .... They seemed to be quarreling, and one 

 soon chased his rival off at top speed." 



A fourth case, quite similar to Chapin's experience, is one related 

 to me by Dr. W. Biittiker, then of Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. On 

 February 20, 1951, he was led by a greater honey-guide a distance of 

 429 yards to a wild bees' nest. For the last 200 yards of this trip a 

 second bird joined in. When they arrived at the vicinity of the nest, 

 which was in an old termite mound, each bird went to a separate small 

 tree, about 6 yards apart, and quieted down for a moment. Then the 

 second bird attempted to chase the first one, but the latter drove off 

 the former individual, which then went on farther ahead by itself. 

 For lack of time. Dr. Biittiker was unable to follow the second bird. 

 In response to further inquiry. Dr. Biittiker writes that it is "difficult 

 to say whether the two birds acted in unison. It seemed to me that 

 No. 1 was the leader and No. 2 intended to guide to another bees' 

 nest .... As the first bird arrived at the ant-heap the second arrived 

 a few seconds afterwards, quieted down a little and then soon began 

 to fight with No. 1. The fighting lasted not more than 1-2 minutes 

 and it was not carried out continuously. The two birds watched me 

 from the two separate trees when I was busy watching the bees flying 

 in and out." Another observation in Southern Rhodesia comes to 

 me from Neuby-Varty (in htt.). On January 9, 1952, he was led 

 by a greater honey-guide for about half a mile when a second bird 

 started to give the chatter note; when he got close to them the two 

 birds flew off together and settled in the same tree, but only one 

 called; they did this three times and then one just flew away leaving 

 the original (?) one, which lead him to a bees' nest. Both birds were 

 adult males, making it difficult to be certain that the bird that com- 

 pleted the guiding trip was the same individual that started it, but 

 I am informed that the observer thought that it was. 



The only other instances known to me took place in Kenya Colony. 

 At Nyeri, Lt. Col. C. H. Stocldey saw what he took to be a pair of 

 greater honey-guides (in his letter he gives no details as to whether 

 they were merely two individuals of unobserved sex or if they were 

 actually one male and one female) and was led by them to one of his 

 own hives. This was the only time he ever saw more than one honey- 

 guide at a time. Jackson (1938, p. 732) was once called by two birds 

 while hunting. 



Mr. John G. Williams, of the Coryndon Museum, Nairobi, writes 

 me that he has followed honey-guides at least 30 or 40 times and that 

 the initial guidiag was almost always done by one bird, but in two or 



