162 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



many years ago, along with other unreHable statements, the Verreaux 

 brothers (in Hartlaub, 1854, p. 417) claimed that when the young 

 honey-guide is about a month old the adults occupy themselves with 

 feeding it and try to take it away from the fosterer's nest! On March 

 11, 1944, Miss Clare Kobinson of Cape Town (in litt. to Dr. Brock- 

 huysen, who forwarded it to me) saw a young greater honey-guide 

 together with two adult individuals near a tap in her back yard. Fur- 

 ther inquiry brought out the fact that no feeding of the youngster by 

 the adults or even food-begging by the young bird was noted. This 

 can hardly, therefore, be looked upon as a significant observation, 

 especially when one considers that the yellow-throated juvenal plum- 

 age may be retained for nearly a year or even longer. 



The retention of the juvenal plumage is a matter of some interest. 

 Dissection of specimens collected indicates that birds may come into 

 breeding condition while still largely in this plumage and still show 

 no signs of active molting, suggesting that in some cases the fully adult 

 feathering may not be acquired until the birds are two years old. 

 There is, apparently, considerable variation in the duration of the 

 first plumage, but, as it is not yet possible to coordinate all the indi- 

 vidual cases satisfactorily, it may be of some use to list the dates of 

 specimens in postjuvenal molt from various parts of Africa. 



The following data are culled from the material preserved in the 

 museums of Cambridge (Mass.), Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, 

 Leiden, London, Milan, New York, Paris, Pietermaritzburg, Phila- 

 delphia, Pittsburgh, Pretoria, Stockholm, and Washington. South 

 Africa and Bechuanaland: January 6, August 3, 14, 15; Nyasa- 

 land: Ruo, September 5; Tanganyika Territory: Iringa, January; 

 Ikoma, July 7; Kenya Colony: Teita, August 29; Uganda: Ankole, 

 July 30; Belgian Congo: Lake Albert, February 15; Guruba River, 

 May 17; Somaliland: Armatch, November 16; Abyssinia: Bogra, 

 February 1; Lake Helone, February 13; Lake Rudolph, March 31; 

 Sudan: Bahr-el-Ghazal, January 28, February 6; Lado, February 11, 

 AprU 15, French Equatorial Africa: Shari River, July 1, 7; 

 Nigeria: Kafanchan, December 18; Portuguese Guinea: Gunnal, 

 June 6. 



That the juvenal plumage is worn for variable periods is shown by the 

 following. In South Africa it is known that the eggs are laid from mid- 

 September to early January, chiefly from late September to mid- 

 December, and the incubation period plus the nestling stage is some- 

 thing less than two months. This would mean that the immature, 

 yellow-throated birds may be expected to be "on their own" from 

 early November to the end of February onward. An immature male 

 taken on the Limpopo River, northern Transvaal, on August 13 was 

 just starting to molt into adult plumage, while another young male, 



