THE HONEY-GUIDES 89 



and more conspicuously and abundantly spotted with creamy to pale 

 buffy white; chin and upper throat with the dusky median portion 

 of the feathers broader and branching laterally to cut up the pale, 

 whitish margins into spots; ground color of the feathers of the breast, 

 upper abdomen, and sides dark greenish olive, causing the pale spots 

 to appear, by virtue of the greater contrast in color, more conspicuous 

 than in the adult; broad median portion of flank feathers and of under 

 tail-coverts somewhat darker than in adults; rectrices more pointed; 

 under wing-coverts as in adults but mth fairly definite, but subdued, 

 transverse markings; axillars white barred with dusky citrine. 

 Natal down: Unlaio\vn, if any. 



Indicator maculatus maculatus 



The nominate race of Upper Guinea, /. m. maculatus, differs from 

 /. m. siictiihorax in being somewhat duskier on the crown and occiput, 

 in having the feathers of the cheeks and malar region uniform dark 

 olive with no whitish margins, the abdomcD less washed with yellow- 

 ish, and the pale breast spots not quite as distinct from the ground 

 color of the feathers. 



Variegated, or Scaly-Throated, Honey-Guide 



Indicator variegatiis Lesson '^ 

 FiGUKES 1, 2,6, B,a; Plates 6,a, 12, 21 



Distribution 



Ecological range: In my personal experience the variegated 

 honey-guide was much more of a wooded-river-bottom dweller than 

 either the greater or the lesser honey-guide. In the Umtaleni Valley, 

 eastern Cape Province, I never saw it except in the forest along the 

 stream, while the other two local species of the genus were chiefly in 

 the drier, more open hillsides, although both came down into the 

 woods as well. Nevertheless, it is obvious from the literature and 

 from the notes of other observers that /. variegatus actually has as 

 wide an ecological range as /. indicator. Thus Jackson (1938, p. 734) 

 found this species to have a marked partiality for the bushveld, 

 "and this is very noticeable in Uganda, as they are rarely seen or 

 heard in places . . . within twenty miles of the lake." J. G. 

 Williams writes me that in his experience with the species in Kenya 

 Colony it is \videspread but everywhere uncommon, frequenting open 

 bush and savannah country and generally avoiding the thicldy wooded 



" Indicator variegatus Lesson, Traits d'ornithologie, vol. 2, p. 155, 1830. 

 (Africa.) 



