106 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Van Someren writes me that he once collected a nestling scaly- 

 throated honey-guide from a nest of a golden-tailed woodpecker in 

 the coastal belt of Kenya Colony in June. 



Dendropicos fuscescens (Vieillot). Cardinal woodpecker. 



Picus fuscescens Vieillot, Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, vol. 26, 

 p. 86, 1818. (South Africa, based on Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des 

 oiseaux d'Afrique, vol. 6, pi. 253, 1808; Grootvaders Bosch (Swellendam 

 District, Cape Province) selected as type locality by A. Roberts, Ann. 

 Transvaal Mus., vol. 10, pt. 2, p. 83, 1924.) 



Listed as a host of Indicator variegatus by Gill (1945, pp. 91-92), 

 but on what actual data I do not know. Dr. Gill informs me that he 

 had no new data at the time of writing, and it would seem from this 

 that his statement is not to be taken as referring to the South African, 

 nominate subspecies of this woodpecker. 



Two, more northern, races have been recorded as victims of the 

 variegated honey-guide, as follows. 



Belcher (1930, p. 167) found a nest of this woodpecker at Nyam- 

 badwe, Nyasaland, September 22, 1926, that contained two eggs of the 

 woodpecker and one egg of a honey-guide. The latter egg measured 

 23 by 18.5 mm. and was thought by Belcher to be either /. indicator or 

 1. variegatus. At the time, he was inclined to favor the former identi- 

 fication because of the fact that /. indicator was more common. 

 Recently Benson (1952a, p. 444; 1953 p. 45) states that both he and 

 Belcher now think that the egg is probably better referred to /. 

 variegatus. The record must remain uncertain, however. 



Benson (1942, p. 299) saw a variegated honey-guide following a 

 cardinal woodpecker about from tree to tree, in close attendance, at 

 Chinteche, Nyasaland, on September 17. "This woodpecker would 

 in any case suggest itself as a possible host . . . and in September it 

 is breeding." 



A young fledgling scaly-throated honey-guide was seen being fed 

 by a pair of cardinal woodpeckers in the Usambara Mountains, 

 Tanganyika Territory, by Moreau (Sclater and Moreau, 1932, p. 665). 



In Portuguese East Africa, Jack Vincent (1935, p. 12) considered 

 that this woodpecker was the only possible host species in breeding 

 condition early in August, at which time he collected breeding samples 

 of the variegated honey-guide. 



The Nyasaland notes refer to the subspecies Dendropicos fuscescens 

 camacupae Bowen (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 82, 

 p. 89, 1930; Villa General Machado, Angola). The notes from Tan- 

 ganyika Territory and Mozambique have to do with Dendropicos 

 fuscescens hartlaubii Malherbe (Rev. et Mag. ZooL, ser. 2, vol. 1, p. 532, 

 1849; Zanzibar). 



