50 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



accord to the potential symbiont the only indication we can get of 

 varying strength or intensity of the drive behind its actions is what 

 we can ascertain of its persistence in attempting to get the attention 

 of the would-be follower. Without any critical, even remotely 

 quantitative data, it may be said that at times the bird may be 

 extremely persistent, staying around chattering and flying about for 

 an hour or more, or waiting more quietly for as much as several hours 

 ("most of a day" in some accounts), but immediately becoming alert 

 and active at the first sign of cooperation, while at other times the 

 bird may give up after a few minutes if it fails to get a quick response. 

 There is a similar range of intensity in its response to a native actively 

 seeking it out with his array of grunts, whistles, and stick-knocking. 

 Sometimes the bird will respond by chattering and flying towards him, 

 while at other times it may merely chatter but remain where it is 

 until the native comes to it. This difference in response is not 

 correlated with sex or age or season. Actually, this variability of 

 type of initial response is a general characteristic of appetitive behavior, 

 and may be a reflection of what Thorpe (1951, p. 37) terms the specific 

 action potential of the individual bird. There may even be times 

 when the bird is not interested at all and makes no response, but of 

 these we can, in the nature of things, have no knowledge. 



Diminishing frequency of the habit 



A clear indication that guiding is not essential to the economy of 

 the greater honey-guide is afforded by numerous and widely scattered 

 observations to the effect that in some areas the bird does not guide, 

 and in others it no longer guides as frequently as it did years ago, and 

 that in some areas it apparently has ceased doing so entirely. 



Gill (1945, p. 91) states that near Cape Town, where the bird still 

 is found "chiefly about large farmhouses set in trees (probably always 

 where bees are kept), there seem to be no recorded cases of the bird 

 trying to guide anyone to bees' nests, but cases are frequent enough 

 in natural bush and forest." 



According to Rodney Wood (in litt. to J. P. Chapin), the species 

 seldom guides about the southern shores of Lake Nyasa. 



Charles Whybrow informs me that during the years he spent in 

 Tanganyika Territory, especially near Malangali (100 miles south- 

 west of Iringa) and Biharamulo (near the southwestern corner of 

 Lake Victoria), he often met with the greater honey-guide, but it 

 never tried to guide him to anything. What is more, none of the 

 natives whom he questioned had ever heard of the birds' guiding 

 habit, which made him conclude that this habit was not so well 

 developed there as in other parts of Africa. 



