THE HONEY-GUIDES 115 



Measurements of males in millimeters: wing 100-105, tail 58.8- 

 64.8, culmen from base 12.6-13, tarsus 14-15; females: wing 98, tail 

 56.7-62, culmen from base 12-13.6, tarsus 14-14.5. 



According to Verheyen (1953, p. 117) the tail feathers are molted 

 two pau's at a time, commencing with the median two pairs. 



Native Names 



Many of the natives do not distinguish this species from the better 

 Imown greater and lesser honej^-guides, or else authors have failed to 

 note what names they give it. "Ndhlava" is recorded as a Zulu name 

 for it in Natal, where the same name is also used for /. minor. 



Greater Honey-Guide 



Indicator indicator (Sparrman) ^^ 

 Figures 1, 2,c, 3,6, 4,a-c, 5; Plates 1, 2, 6,b,c, 8, 9, 13-15, 22, 23, 25 



Distribution 



Ecological range: The greater honey-guide is primarily a bird of 

 the dense bushveld, of tree and bush-dotted grasslands, but has also 

 been found on occasions in less wooded savannas and in true forest. 

 It does not penetrate far into extensive forests, however, and, accord- 

 ingly, is absent from the great Congo forest, the forests of Upper 

 Guinea, and even the much smaller evergreen forests of other parts of 

 Africa. Thus, at Tavcta, southeastern Kenya Colony, the species was 

 fairl}^ numerous in the thorny bushveld, but in three months spent 

 there in 1925 I never saw it in the forested areas. It seems that it is 

 chiefly in regions where narrow strips of forest interdigitate with 

 bushveld or with clearings, man-made or natural (such as the forested 

 slopes of the Karkloof Mountains in central Natal), that the greater 

 honey-guide may range into a truly sylvan habitat. 



It is absent from treeless grasslands, such as much of Basutoland, 

 and from excessively arid areas, such as parts of the Red Sea-Somali 

 coastal lands, the Kalahari desert, and parts of Namaqualand. 



The altitudinal range of the species is from sea level to about 8,000 

 feet (on Mount Elgon). Sjostedt recorded it up to 6,000 feet on 

 Mount Kilimanjaro. 



To some extent, as a contributing rather than a determining factor, 

 the distribution and abundance of the aardvark {Oryderopus afer) 

 and of the ratel (Mellivora capensis) affect the status of the honey-guide 



^2 Cuculus indicator Sparrman, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. 67, p. 43, 

 pi. 1, 1777. (Great Fish River, near Somerset East, Cape Province.) 

 309265—55 9 



