124 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



male honey-guides courting a single female. The males seemed to 

 take no notice of each other and did not attempt to drive each other 

 away. As the fem.ale flew into a tree both males followed closely, 

 settled on branches a couple of feet from her, commenced to fan and 

 close their tails so that the white outer feathers became conspicuous, 

 and sometimes drooped and fluttered their wings like a young bird. 

 During this display they uttered a somewhat sharp, metallic chip- 

 treee note. The female gave no evidence of interest or response, and 

 several times flew ofl" into another tree, only to be followed immediately 

 by the two males. Eventually she flew away, still followed closely 

 by the two males. 



Capt. H. B. Potter, Hluhluwe Reserve, Zululand, gave me the 

 following description of his observations of courtship activity by the 

 greater honey-guide. The male and female bu"ds were perching some 

 few feet apart on a branch of a tree when the male fluffed out its 

 feathers somewhat, raised its head feathers into a little crest, arched 

 its wings stiffly, spread its tail, and then moved suddenly forward along 

 the branch to the female, looking like a miniature turkey cock, but 

 beating its stiffly arched wings rapidly as it moved. The passage of 

 the air through the wing feathers, or the beating of the air by them, 

 caused a low, faint brrrr sound. The male also gave a call similar to 

 the guiding churr note, but lower and with a somewhat plaintive qual- 

 ity. The arched wing position used by the displaying bird makes one 

 wonder if tlie yellow scapular band is thereby made more conspicuous, 

 but on this point we have no data. When a bird has a bright color 

 marking such as this it is usuaUy expected that it be made use of in 

 display. 



The third note comes from Dr. van Someren who describes what he 

 considered to be courtship behavior as foUows: "Male twittering and 

 clapping wings and chasing female; when closely approached the 

 female would flutter wings and make a clicking noise with the bill, 

 then dart off closely pursued by the male." As compared with the 

 descriptions of Williams and Potter, what van Someren records appears 

 to be more in the nature of a sexual flight than a display. 



At the risk of venturing an opinion based on negative evidence, it 

 seems that display is not commonly indulged in by this species. 

 Otherwise, not only would others have witnessed and described it but 

 I feel that those of us (Ranger, Skead, Pringle, and myself) who spent 

 literally days on end watching individual males at their call posts, and 

 even witnessing actual copulations, would have had some personal 

 observation of it. This infrequency of display and the apparent lack 

 of any "jealousy" or "rivalry" between the two males observed (by 

 Williams) simultaneously displaying to the same hen suggest that 



