96 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Another note, recently studied by Ranger, is one that may be termed 

 a "protest note" directed by an estabhshed call-site bird against 

 intruders of its own Idnd in the vicinity of its call site, or by an in- 

 truder attempting to take possession of the area. This note, described 

 more fully in om* discussion of courtship and mating, is an inflected 

 trill, trrreeephew. 



Still another type of vocalism has recently been observed by Ranger 

 (in htt., October 1952). This note suggests the nature of the sound 

 produced by passing the thumbnail over the teeth of a comb. On one 

 occasion it was also combined with a trill composed of the notes of 

 the whistle-call. 



Courtship and Mating 



There are no data on the com-tship and mating behavior of the 

 scaly-throated honey-guide in the literature. In my effort to assemble 

 additional unpublished information I corresponded with the majority 

 of serious observers of African birds and none of them had the slightest 

 bit of information to offer, with the sole exception of Gordon A. 

 Ranger, who not only introduced me to the species in the field but 

 enabled me to see for myself that the call-post behavior present in 

 Indicator indicator and /. minor was also present in this species. 

 However, even Ranger, with all his years of field acquaintance with 

 the bird, had never seen any sign of either courtship or mating. 

 Considering the countless hours that Ranger has spent watching the 

 species, as well as the much briefer but intensive application to it by 

 Skead, Pringle, and myself in Ranger's company, it seems safe to 

 conclude that courtship posturing must be rarely indulged in, if at all. 

 This is not surprising when one recalls how very few notes could be 

 brought together on courtship in the much better known Iindicator 

 indicator. Honey-guides seem to be largely devoid of such behavior. 



My own observations of the call-site or call-post behavior were 

 made in November 1950 in the Umtaleni Valley with Ranger, Skead, 

 and Pringle. Here one bird, presumably a male, was watched day 

 after day for hours at a time. Its "singing" area comprised four 

 different trees, three of which were on one side of a stream, one on the 

 other. The stream was about 18 yards wide; all four of the call posts 

 could be included in a triangle with a base of about 35 yards and a 

 height of 31 yards; the area involved being noticeably smaller than 

 that for either I. indicator or /. minor. Unlike these congeners the 

 bird showed no predilection for a favorite twig in each of its call-trees 

 as long as it was high up under the canopy. This call site was known 

 to Ranger as held by /. variegatus continuously since 1925 (26 years)! 



Ranger is the only naturalist to have published on the tendency of 

 the variegated honey-guide to caU persistently from a given tree, and 



