182 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing solely by analogy with the greater honey-guide, it seems probable 

 that any bird singing constantly from a definite tree will prove to be 

 a male. But, it must be emphasized, this is not proved, as analogy 

 is by no means a conclusive argument. 



If the kleeu note is given only by the male, it would appear that, as 

 far as recorded information goes, the female lesser honey-guide is 

 wholly silent. I doubt that this is really the case, however. 



When feeding, the birds do not call; at least I never heard any sound 

 from them as they darted about after flying insects. Skead (1951, pp. 

 52-53) noted that even when two of the birds were together in his 

 garden and one chased the other energetically, they remained silent. 

 On two occasions only did he record any call notes — a quiet, un- 

 accented, stuttering trUl which he rendered as tttrrreee. 



In Cameroons, Bates noted a little chnping call from the local race, 

 /. minor conirostris, but found it usually to be silent. In the Belgian 

 Congo, Chapin apparently heard no notes from either conirostris or 

 riggenbachi, as he describes none in his accounts. Similarly, in Nigeria, 

 Marchant (1951, p. 73) never heard conirostris utter a sound. 



The kleeu notes are given from about an hour or so after sunrise, 

 about 7:30 a. m., to about two hours before dusk, about 4 p. m. It is 

 my experience that on cloudy or rainy days the song is given as much 

 as on sunny days but the number of notes in the series tends to be 

 smaller, about 7-15, as compared with up to 30 on sunny, bright days. 



The call note of the nestling is described by Skead (loc. cit.) as a 

 "rolling, squeaky noise heard continuously throughout the day and 

 even into the night ... It closely resembles the call of the chicks 

 of its host, the Black-collared Barbet, and f Iso the chick of the Greater 

 Honeyguide. As the chick gets older the calling becomes less per- 

 sistent." 



Seasonal Movements and Site Tenacity 



As in the greater honey-guide, there is no true migratory movement 

 in this species, but some local, seasonal moving about is indicated by 

 the following observations. 



Heuglin (1869, pp. 771-773) considered it a migratory bird in north- 

 eastern Africa, arriving singly or in "pairs" in Samhar, Ethiopia, and 

 in the drainage basin of the White Nile (subspecies diadematus) . In 

 the West Basin of the Darfur Province, Sudan, Lynes (1925, p. 352) 

 never met with the species (subspecies riggenbachi) except for a visita- 

 tion during July and August, when it suddenly appeared in some 

 numbers. "These midsummer visitors were fairly plentiful in the 

 woodlands; all our specimens [seven collected] were adults in well- 

 advanced complete moult; five of them came from one party. I think 



