THE HONEY-GUIDES 93 



of variation in the purring call-site note, from the low, froglike croaking 

 described earlier to a loud vibrant rolling note with something of the 

 quality of a policeman's whistle in it. What appears to have been this 

 type of note has been described by several authors: the Woodwards 

 (1899, p. 107) in Natal, Woosnam (in Ogilvie-Grant, 1910, p. 414) in 

 Uganda, Benson (1937, p. 560; 1940, p. 429; 1942, p. 299) in Nyasaland 

 as a trill or a deep trilled whistle lasting occasionally even 3 or 4 seconds 

 and (1948, p. 55) ascending the scale a full octave. In none of these 

 published notes is there any indication of the meaning or function of 

 this type of vocalism. 



In the eastern Cape Province, Ranger and Skead watched a male (?) 

 scaly-throated honey-guide giving its croaking, purring song from its 

 caU post when another individual came close to it, whereupon the first 

 bird broke off its croaking song in the middle and chased the intruder 

 in a most determined fashion, swaying, swerving, and with direct, not 

 undulating, flight. "As the two birds flew off, we heard a call new to 

 us, a series of annoyed and husky kizz, kizz, kizz, very similar to the 

 call we had heard /. minor make during its chase this morning and also 

 to the noise made by I. indicator after copulation. Soon a bird re- 

 turned to VI (the call site) and resumed calling. Although the infer- 

 ence that the intruder was variegatus is strong, and in our opinion very 

 probable, that action was so quick that identification was impossible. 

 It might have been a wandering /. indicator. We have twice seen the 

 species amicable at a bees' nest but at call sites they may be different. 

 When we left both birds were calling at VI and V2 (two call sites of 

 I. variegatus about 250 yards apart)." 



Other notes described in the literature are as follows. Meinertz- 

 hagen (1937, p. 745) heard a ka, ka, ka note repeated by guiding birds. 

 This is apparently an alternative rendition of Ivy's (1901, p. 21) cha- 

 cha-cha. Priest (1934, p. 508) records a harsh and persistent charr- 

 charr-charr often repeated. Williams writes me that in his experience 

 with it in Kenya Colony and Uganda the bird is usually silent, but at 

 times produces a chattering call note. All of these descriptions prob- 

 ably refer to the same type of vocal utterance. Van Someren (in 

 Mackworth-Praed and Grant, 1952, p. 741) records a long drawn out 

 cheee-tii, cheee-tii. 



Moreau (in Sclater and Moreau, 1932, p. 665) kept in captivity for 

 a few days a scaly-throated honey-guide that had stunned itself 

 against a wdndow and he heard only a squawk note from it. 



Roberts (1940, p. 187) describes the call notes given from the tree- 

 tops as a "pretty, not very loud whistling in a high key." Aside 

 from the lack of meaning in such a word as "pretty," I cannot reconcile 

 this description with any other known call, unless it be the following 

 (the data on which are entirely the observations in the eastern Cape 



