178 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Lesser Honey-Guide 



Indicator minor Stephens ^^ 



Figures 1, 2,d, 3,/; 

 Plates 3, 4, 5, 6,d,e, 7, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 23 



Distribution 



Ecological range: The lesser honey-guide is a wide-ranging bird 

 inhabiting (taking all its races together) almost every conceivable 

 habitat from evergreen tropical forest to arid, sparsely wooded areas 

 such as parts of Soraaliland and of Damaraland. Some of the sub- 

 species are in themselves very restricted ecologically — conirostris, for 

 example, being entirely a denizen of the dense, evergreen tropical 

 forest, and damarensis living only in the dry steppes of the highlands 

 of Damaraland — while others, such as the nominate race, are found 

 in a greater variety of habitats. Thus, in Kenya Colony alone, minor 

 is known to inhabit riverine or gallery forest (South Kinangop, Aber- 

 dare Mountains, at 8,000 feet), the dry highlands forest, dry bush 

 country, savannas, and the very dry thorn-bush areas. Its altitudinal 

 range extends from sea level up to at least 8,000 feet. In Nyasaland, 

 Benson (1953, p. 45) records it as occurring below 5,000 feet in rain- 

 forest or in any type of woodland. 



Geographical range: Africa south of the Sahara from Senegal on 

 the west to Eritrea and Ethiopia on the east, south to the Cape 

 Province. In this enormous expanse the species breaks up into a 

 number of races, whose distribution may be given separately. 



/. w. senegalensis. ^^ Senegal (Thies, near Dakar). 



/. m. alexanderi:^* French Sudan (Mopti), the northern territories 

 of the Gold Coast (Kintampo, Gambaga, Bole), northern Nigeria 

 (Bauche and Benue Provinces, Nasaru, Ilorin), Lake Chad (Fort 

 Lamy), east probably to the Shari and Bagirmi areas; in open, sparsely 

 wooded savannas, not in dense, evergreen forest. 



I. m. ussheri: ^^ Liberia (Firestone Plantation) to the Ashanti area 

 of the Gold Coast (Ejura, Mampong). ^^ 



^^ Indicator minor Stephens, in Shaw, General zoology, vol. 9, pt. 1, p. 140, 

 1815. (Cape of Good Hope =Zwartkop River, Uitenhage Division, Cape Province.) 



33 Indicator minor senegalensis Neumann, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, vol. 21, p. 

 43, 1908. (Thi6s, near Dakar, Senegal.) 



3< Indicator minor alexanderi C. Grant, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, vol. 35, p. 99, 

 1915. (Gambaga, Gold Coast Hinterland.) 



^^ Indicator ussheri Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, vol. 12, p. 80, 1902. 

 (Fanti, Gold Coast.) 



38 As long ago as 1828, Lesson (1828, p. 125) reported the lesser honey-guide 

 from Sierra Leone. No one has found it there smce, but if this is to be taken 

 as a valid record, it might well refer to this race. It is not sufficient evidence, 

 however, on which to extend the known range of this form that far westward. 



