THE HONEY-GUIDES 59 



viously selected bees' nest, or at least to one of a group of known bees' 

 nests. That "guiding" may lead to bees' nests that could not have 

 been previously selected by or even known to the bird is evidenced by 

 the following experience communicated to me by Captain Davison of 

 the Wankie Game Reserve in Southern Rhodesia. He had a group of 

 his natives at one of the rest camps in the Reserve when a honey- 

 guide came to them and chattered and went through all the motions 

 of trying to get them to follow it. Davison refused to let any of his 

 boys go, but got them all on a truck and drove off to the next camp 

 some 5 m.iles away. The bird followed them all the way and then 

 Davison told one of the natives to get an axe and follow the bird. 

 The honey-guide "led" this native to a bees' nest less than half a 

 mile from the second camp, but which must have been at least 4}^ miles 

 from where the bird first began calling to them. Certainly 4}^ miles 

 is many times farther than an}?- honey-guide has ever been known to 

 "lead" a follower, and it is highly improbable that the bird even knew of 

 this bees' nest. Davison felt convinced that it was the same individual 

 bird throughout this observation. 



While much is still to be learned, the following brief description 

 seems to summarize our present understanding of the guiding habit. 

 The releasers of the instinctive behavior constituting "guiding" 

 are the sight or sound of ratals, baboons, and humans (away from 

 villages) . The stimulus which apparently brings these actions to a halt 

 is the sight or sound of bees. It is temptmg to expand von Uexlviill'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. The three animals known to be "guided" to bees' nests 

 by the birds are creatures the birds probably have ample opportunity 

 of associating with bees' nests because all three (ratel, baboon, and 

 human) break open bees' nests regularly. At times, when they are 

 doing so a honey-guide appears on the scene, possibly attracted by 

 the sound, but also because honey-guides are often given to perching 

 near places where bees swarm. In such cases there is no "guiding" 

 behavior, probably because the sight or sound of the bees flying 

 about is sufficient to stop such behavior patterns from being released 

 by the otherwise releasing "kumpan." 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. 



At this point it seems worth while to interpolate a suggestion for 

 future work on the nature of the bond between the bird and its 



