134 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



on actually recorded data. On the other hand, in Northern Rhodesia, 

 White and Winterbottom (1949, p. 64) found crude but fairly well 

 marked negative correlation — the honey-guides being less numerous 

 in areas of high wax production, like Mankoya and Balovale, than 

 elsewhere, as in the Rufunsa-Lunsemfwa areas. 



My personal experience indicates that a fair percentage of the 

 honey-guides may be somewhat nomadic (especially the subadult 

 birds), only fully adult males being found established on call posts. 

 The fact that at these call posts the same individual bird may be 

 found day after day with great regularity for long periods of time 

 might suggest territorial behavior, but this is certainly negatived by 

 the complete lack of jealousy or exclusiveness with regard to other 

 males at these sites, and by the fact that while one individual may 

 be the only one definitely "established" there, other males may use 

 it simultaneously even though only temporarily. 



In the Umtaleni Valley, near Kei Road, eastern Cape Province, 

 Gordon Ranger banded an adult male honey-guide that was present 

 day after day on a definite call post to which it adhered throughout 

 each day. Later, during the nonbreeding season, the same individual 

 was encountered about iK miles away, where it led him to a wild 

 bees' nest. Another marked individual, a female, was retaken over a 

 period of months at places as much as 3 miles apart in the Umtaleni 

 Valley. These observations give us the only reliable indication of the 

 area covered by a single bird, and even here there is no proof that 

 the bird might not have ranged still farther afield. 



Evidence to the effect that an adult male giving the typical vic-tor 

 call may be nomadic comes to me from Skead, who saw and heard 

 such an individual during its passage through King William's Town. 

 The bird was there for only one day, but during that day acted much 

 like an individual established on a call post. 



That the same individual may visit the same bees' nest at short 

 and also at fairly long intervals, and that several individuals may 

 repair to the same hive, is shown by some of Ranger's recent work 

 involving banded birds. Thus, individual A94 was trapped at a bees' 

 nest on June 12 and retaken there two days later; bird A96 was 

 trapped at the same hive on June 17 and again on July 26; individual 

 A99 was taken at the same bees' nest on September 26 and again on 

 October 9. The trap at this particular bees' nest remained in operation 

 day and night from June 12 on, and was visited daUy. In spite of 

 these daily inspections, honey-guides were seen there relatively 

 infrequently. Other honey-guides marked and released were taken 

 again in the same place 79 and 116 days later, indicating a tendency 

 to remain in the same general area over considerable periods of time. 



