70 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



begin to "lead" the ratel instead of merely chattering at it when the 

 two happened to meet away from a bees' nest. In the case of the 

 relatively "primitive" spotted honey-guide, Indicator maculatus, the 

 bird is said to call (at times, at least) from the vicinity of a hive, but it 

 is not known if it calls to anything; it may be no noisier there than 

 it is elsewhere, and, as far as our very limited information goes, its note 

 may be no different when near a bees' nest or far from one. Detailed 

 observations on this honey-guide are sorely needed. Unfortunately, 

 information on the guiding habit in the next species in the ph^dogeny 

 of the group, /. variegatus, is also very meager, but the little we have 

 suggests no behavior notably different from that of 7. indicator. It 

 would seem, and this is admittedly speculative, that originally the 

 bird probably knew of one or more bees' nests, and when coming upon a 

 ratel began to chatter as if in anticipation of the latter being already 

 at the hive (with which the creature was associated in the bird's 

 memory), and flew back to the known hive, followed by the Mellivora. 

 The flight back to the known bees' nest might have had to be a 

 repetitive affair until the slower moving mammal reached the spot. 

 From this it seems there developed the tendency to chatter to a 

 symbiont even when no particular bees' nest may have been close at 

 hand, and that the resulting series of flights that we call guiding 

 eventually halted when the bird saw or heard bees flying about. 

 Thus, originally, "guiding" would seem to have been more accurately 

 a matter of leading to a known goal than it has since come to be. That 

 it was never essential to either the bkd or the mammal permitted its 

 development as a habit in both as a more or less adventitious addition 

 to their regular food-seeking activities, and it may well have assumed a 

 greater and greater role in time. It is, however, difficult if not impos- 

 sible to imagine the development of such a habit if it were the chief 

 foraging method, as it would have been of no conceivable value to 

 either until it was perfected by both. 



To summarize: The bird evinces an excitement type of behavior 

 when meeting with a potential symbiont, and this excitment abates 

 only when the bird sees or hears flying, buzzing bees. Inasmuch as 

 this latter is most apt to happen near a bees' nest, the result is that 

 by following the excited bird the symbiont is usually eventually 

 brought to the vicinity of a bees' nest. The whole behavior works 

 out as if it were purposive, but there is no reason to read any "purpose" 

 or "plan" into it. 



It is unfortunate that no intermediate stages in the development of 

 the guiding habit are known. The behavior in Indicator variegatus 

 apparently is essentially sinular to what we know in /. indicator, but 

 is less frequently indulged in, at least with human associates. As our 

 account of the former species will show (p. Ill), there is evidence of a 



