THE HONEY-GUIDES 37 



In Northern Khodesia, Maj. E. L, Haydock tells me that he has 

 been led on numerous occasions, and that four specimens shot on 

 these "leads" have all proved to be females. 



That immature birds have been known to guide in northeastern 

 and eastern Africa is attested by the fact that many years ago von 

 Heuglin (1869, pp. 767-769) described Indicator major (=young /. 

 indicator) as guiding in the same way as /. indicator, which was then 

 thought to be a different species. Furthermore, Mackworth-Praed 

 (1917, p. 392) was led to a bees' nest by a yellow-throated honey- 

 guide at Tsavo, Kenya Colony. 



While the above data clearly show that males and females and old 

 and immature bnds do guide, there is some evidence to account for 

 the unusually high percentage of guiding by immature birds in the 

 experience of Skead, Ranger, and myself, A good part of our cases 

 were recorded in a bushveld area (Umtaleni Valley) near Kei Road. 

 In this area the adult male honey-guides were definitely established 

 on "call sites" (or, as we came to call them, "stud posts") to which 

 they adhered from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m. not only during the breeding 

 season but throughout much of the year, and from which they would 

 not be lured away to guide us. This immobilization of the adult 

 males may be reflected in the high incidence of subadults among the 

 guiders. Study of long series of museum specimens also indicates 

 that the yellow-throated plumage is retained until the birds are two 

 years old, although they begin to breed when one year old, a fact that 

 also helps to swell the number of subadult birds recorded. This 

 situation should, however, be examined elsewhere over the range of 

 Indicator indicator, and similar tallies may be expected with more 

 resident observers. 



While some observers have informed me that they considered guid- 

 ing somewhat seasonal, none have claimed more than that its fre- 

 quency was greater at one time of the year than another. The 

 accounts received from men in the field and from the literature, as 

 well as personal experience, do not justify any attempt to correlate 

 the habit with the season of the year or the breeding condition of the 

 birds. This is most clearly shown in southern Africa where the 

 seasons are more definite than in the equatorial portions of the 

 continent. My own experience there happens to have been quite 

 seasonal — end of winter (late August) to late summer (third week in 

 January) — and I have been guided by nonbreeding as well as breeding 

 birds in August, September, October, November, and December. 

 Resident observers such as Skead (1951) have been guided in May, 

 June, July, August, and November, and there are records for guidings 



