122 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Unlike the singing of so many birds in various parts of the world, 

 the honey-guides do not appear to indulge excessively in vocalisms 

 early in the morning. At Umtaleni we seldom heard the vic-tor note 

 before about 8 a. m., which was several hours after sunrise, although 

 we were alert for it. The calling was kept up through the heat of the 

 day, until about 4 p. m. when the call post was deserted until the 

 following morning. Neither heat nor cloudiness seemed to affect 

 the frequency or vigor of calling, but heavy rain did drive the bird 

 into sheltered masses of vegetation where it did not continue to call. 

 Occasionally the vic-tor note was heard before sum*ise (5:30 a. m.) and 

 after sunset, but these were relatively rare occurrences. 



The carrying power of the vic-tor note was measured in a rough way 

 by the distance from the call post at which it could be heard. In the 

 Umtaleni Valley, Skead, Ranger, and I agreed in our independent 

 estimates that we had been able to hear it distinctly when as much as 

 700 or 800 yards away from the call post, and possibly more. In the 

 Matopos Mountains, in Southern Rhodesia, a male honey-guide 

 calling from his post on the top of a high rocky hill was heard at 

 least 900 yards away. These figures would suggest that a calling 

 male could control vocally an area of several hundred acres, i. e., 

 inform wandering females, or males, of his presence. The acreage 

 covered varies with the distance between the widely separated second- 

 ary call posts (in the Umtaleni case the most widely separated ones 

 were about 180-200 feet apart). Of course, not all of this acreage 

 would necessarily be country suitable for honey-guides, but the voice 

 of the calling male could carry across unsuitable places to more distant 

 areas just beyond. 



The vic-tor note is the only one that is given regularly and con- 

 sistently, hour after hour, day after day for months on end by the 

 adult male. This note has been recorded even in the nonbreeding 

 season (late May in the Cape Province). At Umtaleni, Ranger 

 informs me that in recent years, since he has been keeping accurate 

 records, site-calling has not been heard in March, May, and June, 

 and only once in April. On one occasion, at Umtaleni, Skead heard a 

 male, which had been giving the vic-tor note for over an hour from its 

 call tree, make a low but quite penetrating shree or shreea or shreh note, 

 repeated a few times, and also a tripping tr-tr-tr-ir utterance. The 

 shrea note recalls somewhat the shrill screeching of copulating birds 

 as described in our discussion of the mating habits, but it was soft- 

 toned and was made when the bird caught sight of another individual. 

 It may have been more in the nature of a defensive or offensive 

 exclamation, as it was also recorded once as given by the same indi- 

 vidual honey-guide to a forest weaver (Symplectes bicolor) which flew 

 into the call-tree and drove off the honey-guide. Although I never 



