THE HONEY-GUIDES 61 



the follower showed no interest in the bees' nest that the bird edged 

 off and then, as the person came near it, began to "lead" again. 



It must also be remembered that just as the ratel or baboon or prim- 

 itive human may be the "bee kumpans" to the bird, so the honey- 

 guide may be equally the "bee kumpan" to the ratel, baboon, or 

 primitive human. In our wonderment at the "strange" guiding habit 

 of the bird we have generally forgotten to consider the equally remark- 

 able "following" habit of these mammals. We must remember that 

 the "following" is voluntary; the mammal does not have to follow 

 the bird, and, in the case of the ratel, both the guide and the follower 

 mutually stimulate each other by sound throughout the trip, the 

 end of which is apparently often, if not usually, unknown to both 

 when they start out. In the case of the primitive human the noises 

 made by the follower are imitations of the call of the ratel and of the 

 noise made by chopping open bees' nests, obviously designed to 

 heighten the associative significance of the human follower to the 

 bird. That the grunting call given by the South African natives is 

 such a direct imitation is evidenced by the incident related previously 

 about the Zulu game guard who said that a ratel sounded "just like 

 a native calling to a honey-guide." 



The behavior of the honey-guide on coming to the vicinity of a bees' 

 nest is of interest in this connection as it throws some light on the 

 nature of the guiding habit. Inasmuch as we are still in the stage of 

 groping for clues as to the original nature of the habit, we can ill 

 afford to neglect any bit of evidence, slight as it may be. In order to 

 avoid placing undue value on such evidence, we may begin by stressing 

 its great variability. In almost every case in my own experience (22 

 out of 23 guiding trips) the bird became and remained silent when at or 

 near the bees' nest at the end of a noisy guiding trip with all its usual 

 accompaniment of constant chattering and successive flights. Other 

 naturalists have had quite different experiences, as will be pointed out, 

 but the fact that the bird frequently suddenly becomes silent and 

 perches quietly in a convenient tree nearby is not without significance. 

 If the immediate (as contrasted with the biological) end served by the 

 guiding habit were merely the opening of the bees' nest and the getting 

 of the food from it, one might plausibly expect the tension and excite- 

 ment of the bird to increase noticeably when it arrives at the hive. 

 Yet, what often transpires is just the opposite. All the bird's activi- 

 ties and movements subside and it remains unobtrusively in a nearby 

 tree. Whatever activated it before has suddenly been "satisfied," 

 and the only observable thing that has happened is that the bird has 

 been exposed to the sight and sound of flying bees. In two cases of 

 personal observation, after reaching the bees' nest we had to send a 

 native back to camp for an ax and a spade, and we merely sat there 



