140 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



phagus pusillus 19; Spreo bicolor 12; Upupa africana 9; Melittophagus 

 bullockoides 6; Petronia superciliaris 5; Phoeniculus purpureus and 

 Campethera abingoni 4 each; Lybius torquatus 3; Campethera nubica 

 2+; Hirundo cucullata 3+; Halcyon albiventris, Tricholaema leuco- 

 melan, Dicrocercus hirundinus, Trachyphonus vaillantii, Campethera 

 taeniolaema, Myrmecocichla aethiops, and Myrmecocichla jormicivora 

 2 each. Of the other hosts only single records are known to me. 



While it appears that the bee-eaters, hoopoes, wood hoopoes, 

 barbets, woodpeckers, and starlings are of great importance in the 

 economy of the honey-guide, we cannot say how much of a check on 

 their natural increase the parasitism of the latter may be. At times, 

 and locally, the greater honey-guide may be a serious factor in the 

 population status of some of its common victims, as is pointed out in 

 the discussion of Melittophagus pusillus and Hirundo cucullata, but even 

 in the best known cases the data are too few to permit of any general- 

 izations at present. 



Halcyon albiventris albiventris (Scopoli). Brown-hooded kingfisher. 



Alcedo albiventris Scopoli, Deh'ciae florae et faunae insubricae . . ., pt. 2, 

 p. 90, 1786. (New Guinea, error=^ Natal, see Schlegel, Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle des Pays-Bas, Revue M^thodique . . ., No. 17, Alcedines, 

 p. 31, 1863.) 



In a letter to C. J. Skead, Brian Stuckenberg reports that on two 

 occasions, once in 1937 and once in 1947, near Essexvale, eastern 

 Cape Province, this kingfisher was found to be parasitized by the 

 greater honey-guide. In each case the eggs were found and collected. 



Halcyon chelicuti chelicuti (Stanley). Striped kingfisher. 



Alaudo cheliculi Stanley, in Salt, A voyage to Abyssinia, Appendix, p. Ivi, 1814. 

 (Chelicut, Abyssinia.) 



Near Marandellas, Southern Rhodesia, early in October 1949, 

 Neuby-Varty found a nest of this kingfisher containing one fully 

 feathered young greater honey-guide and three pecked eggs of the 

 host. This is the only instance known to me of this bird as a victim 

 of the honey-guide. 



Aerops boehmi (Reicheuow). Boehm's bee-eater. 



Merops {Melittophagus) boehmi Reichenow, Ornith. Centralbl., vol. 7, p. 62, 

 1882. (Bumi, Tanganyika Territory.) 



Recorded, not with absolute certainty, as a host of the greater 

 honey-guide in Nyasaland by Benson (1950), who writes that at 

 Chikwawa on September 28, 1944, he collected two clutches of eggs 

 of Boehm's bee-eater, one of which had, in addition to two fresh eggs 

 of the Aerops, a third, dissimilar egg, also fresh, measuring 23.1 by 

 18.0 mm. (as compared with 18.2-19.2 by 15.2-16.1 mm. for the 

 bee-eater's eggs) . This egg is rougher in texture, more oval, and some- 

 what glossier. Benson and Pitman, to whom he gave the eggs, 



