THE HONEY-GUIDES 111 



W. L. Chiazzari (in litt., July 24, 1951) had the following experience 

 with a male variegatus in nonbreeding condition (bird collected for 

 identification) at St. Lucia Lake, Zululand, August 3, 1950: 



A track was being followed through the fairly dense bush and forest which 

 skirts the Lake at this point when I was attracted by a somewhat agitated call 

 from the thickets some way in front. Upon inspection I observed what was 

 obiously a honey-guide sitting on the horizontal, protruding limb of a tree over 

 the path. Upon approaching, the call became more and more agitated, much 

 in the same way as most birds cry when the presence of a snake or some bird 

 of prey has been detected. Leaving this branch it made off to another further on, 

 following a curved line of flight. AH the while, a continual stream of chee-chee's 

 was kept up. Again I approached and again it moved further on repeating the 

 same pattern of flight and call. This follow-my-leader continued in short 

 stages for well nigh 150-200 yards from the first point of contact, then taking 

 up a position in a larger tree it could not be persuaded to move despite the fact 

 that I had approached to within a very short distance. It was only then that 

 I realized that I had been following, not as I thought the lesser honey-guide, 

 minor, but a species I had not encountered before — variegatus. 



Although the bush contained a number of goodly trees in the neighborhood, 

 I was unable to locate a single hive, despite the fact that the stream of chee's 

 continued unabated from the obviously excited Honeyguide. 



Evidence to the effect that, like /. indicator, this honey-guide 

 may also lead ratels to bees' nests comes from R. A. F. Hurt, Game 

 Ranger, Thomson's Falls, Kenya Colony. He had previously written 

 me that two of his reliable, trained native game scouts told him of 

 seeing honey-guides leading ratels on four occasions; on two of these 

 times the bird was a large one, and on the other two it was a smaller 

 species. I pointed out that so far only I. indicator was known to 

 associate in this manner with ratels, but that there was no reason 

 for assuming that variegatus might not do so, and that it was even 

 possible that some of the smaller species which do not guide humans 

 might still enter into some such association with ratels. I suggested 

 he borrow specimens of the various species and show them to the 

 game scouts and see if they could tell which ones they had seen with 

 the ratels. In a recent letter Hurt informs me that he took one of 

 the game scouts to the Coryndon Museum, in Nairobi, where he 

 was shown a tray containing about 40 specimens of honey-guides. 

 The game scout immediately picked out two of them and said they 

 were like the ones he had seen with the ratels. Both of these speci- 

 mens were 7. variegatus, and the scout further explained that he had 

 particularly noticed the markings on the breast of the birds seen 

 guiding the ratels. 



This is the first indication that I. variegatus leads ratels. The case 

 is not as conclusive as one might wish as it is not always easy, or 

 even possible, to see the guiding bird closely enough in the field 



