THE HONEY-GUIDES 133 



It appears that the situation in the honey-guides partakes to some 

 degree of the characteristics of several of these groups, and agrees 

 entirely with none. More information, especially on all the species 

 other than Indicator indicator, may well reduce the apparent unique- 

 ness of our present picture, but for the time being we can only think 

 of it in light of what we now know. Thus, we have seen that in some 

 cases the male honey-guide is isolated and is remarkably constant in 

 his attendance at a particular caU post, and, while he does not display 

 conspicuously (usually not at all), he does give his vic-tor notes con- 

 tinuously from there. He acts ostensibly as if the site were his own 

 individual post in every way except the very important one that he 

 shows no sign of jealousy or exclusiveness regarding it and makes no 

 attempt to drive off a second, nomadic (?) male that may at times 

 use it simultaneously with him. 



Seasonal Movements and Site Tenacity 



There is no evidence that the greater honey-guide is migratory, 

 and, in fact, in many parts of its range it is recorded as present through- 

 out the year. In some areas, however, there is some evidence sug- 

 gestive of local seasonal movement. Thus, in the Abyssinian lowlands 

 and in the adjacent Bogos district von Heuglin (1869, pp. 767-769) 

 thought it disappeared during the dry season — December to the middle 

 of April. In the Darfur area in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Lynes 

 (1925, p. 351) considered the species as an "off-season visitor" only. 

 In Northern Rhodesia, White (1946, p. 72) suggested that the observed 

 variation in local abundance or scarcity might be due to periodic 

 failures of the flowering of Brachystegia and Isoberlinia, which would 

 affect the number of bees and thereby the welfare of the honey-guides. 

 In Southern Rhodesia, Priest (in litt.) found the birds to be "local 

 migrants" and "only a few remaining, as there are far fewer about 

 in winter." 



Just what or how much effect the abundance of bees has on the 

 numerical status of the greater honey-guide is difficult to say, as there 

 are usually other factors operating simultaneously which cloud or may 

 even change what correlation might otherwise exist. In the Hluh- 

 luwe Reserve, Zululand, Capt, H. B. Potter informed me that there 

 were many more wild bees' nests and many more honey-guides before 

 about 500 natives had been sent in to combat nagana, the sleeping 

 sickness of cattle. An unplanned result of this was that these natives 

 greatly depleted the available supply of wild honey by persistently 

 robbing all the wild nests they could find Avith the aid of the Indicators. 

 After this, the honey-guide population declined very noticeably. 

 Captain Potter's statement is a considered opinion but is not based 



