The species of honey-guides 



Genus Indicator Stephens 



Indicator Stephens, in Shaw, General zoology, vol. 9, pt. 1, p. 131, 1815, (Tj^pe 

 by tautonymy. Indicator sparrmanii Stephens^ Cuculus indicator Sparrman.) 



Prodotes Nitzsch, Observationes de Avium arteria carotide communi, p. 15, 1829. 

 (Substitute name for "Indicator auctorum.") 



Melignothes Casstn, Proc. Acad, Nat, Sci, Philadelphia, vol, 8, p. 156, 1856, 

 (Type, M. conirostris Cassin.) 



Melignostes Heine, Journ, Ornith., vol, 8, p, 192, 1860, (Emendation for Melig- 

 nothes Cassin.) 



Pseudofringilla Hume, Stray Feathers, vol. 1, p. 314, 1873, (Type by original 

 designation. Indicator xanthonotus Blyth.) 



Pseudospiza Sharpe, in Rowley, Ornithological miscellany, vol, 1, p. 207, 1876, 

 (New name for Pseudofringilla Hume.) 



Melipodagus Roberts, Ann, Transvaal Mus., vol, 8, p. 220, 1922. (Type by 

 original designation, Indicator variegatus Lesson.) 



"Typical" honey-guides, characterized by having a tail of 12 

 feathers, outer 2 pairs shorter than the others (the outermost the 

 shortest), median 4 pairs equal in length; bill varying from fairly 

 large and strong to short and stubby, but never slender. Three 

 fairly distinct subgenera may be recognized: Indicator, with a large 

 and strong bill, four species, three (/, indicator, I. variegatus, and 

 /. maculatus) in Africa and one (/. archipelagicus) in Malaya and the 

 East Indies; Melignothes, with a short, stout, blunt biU, and smaller 

 general size than subgenus Indicator, two species (/. minor and /. 

 exilis), each with several races, in Africa; and Pseudofringilla, a 

 remarkably colored species with a finchlike biU, one species, /. xan- 

 thonotus, of the Himalayas,^' The guiding habit is confined, as far 

 as known, to the subgenus Indicator. 



The breeding habits of four of the seven included species are known, 

 being parasitic chiefly on hole-nesting birds; breeding habits of the 

 other three species probably are similar. 



'^ The genus Melignomon, retained in this work as in current literature for 

 one species, M. zenkeri, is hardly more than a fourth subgenus of Indicator. 

 Because of its intermediate position between Indicator and Prodotiscus, it is 

 convenient to have a distinct name to use for it in our discussions. 



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