THE HONEY-GUIDES 193 



Southern Rhodesia, each containing a single egg ascribed to Indicator 

 minor. Two of these clutches have 3 eggs each of the barbet, one has 

 2, and the other three have only single eggs of the host. The dates 

 of these sets are October 10, 10, 10, 12, 24, and November 19. The 

 honey-guide eggs, measured for me by Mr. R. H. N. Smithers of the 

 National Museum of Southern Rhodesia, are, in some cases, either 

 large eggs of minor or small ones of indicator, but in at least two of 

 these sets they are too small to be indicator, 19.9 by 15.9 and 22.6 

 by 17 mm. These two, at least, seem safe to accept as minor. 



The lesser bee-eater is a common host of the greater honey-guide, 

 but aside from these Strathmore records I know of no evidence that it 

 also serves in this capacity for the lesser honey-guide. 



Halcyon chelicuti chelicuti (Stanley). Striped kingfisher. 



Alaudo chelicuti Anonymous = Stanley, in Salt, Voyage to Abyssinia . . ., 

 App. 4, p. Ivi, 1814. (Chelicut, Ethiopia.) 



The striped kingfisher is parasitized by the lesser honey-guide in 

 South Africa, but apparently not commonly, as only two instances of 

 its being so affected are known to me. A. Roberts (1939, pp. 102-105) 

 records both — a set of four eggs of the kingfisher and one of the parasite 

 taken at St. Lucia Lake, Zululand, October 20, 1931, and a set of three 

 eggs of the kingfisher and one of the honey-guide collected at Mo- 

 keetsi, Transvaal, December 10, 1930. Both sets are now in the 

 Transvaal Museum. These are apparently the same records as those 

 listed by Priest (1948, p. 64). 



Gymnobucco bonapartei bonapartei Hartlaub. Bonaparte's brown barbet, 



Gymnobucco bonapartei Hartlaub, Journ. Ornith., vol. 2, p. 410, 1854 

 (Gaboon.) 



At Bitye, Cameroons, April 1, Bates (1909a, p. 16) found a chick of 

 the lesser honey-guide (Indicator minor conirostris) in a nest of 

 Bonaparte's brown barbet. "In other holes in the same dead tree 

 were birds of that species [Gymnobucco]] but the little Indicator was 

 found in its hole alone, so that it formed, apparently, the entu-e family 

 of its foster-parents." Bannerman (1953, p. 727) also lists this barbet 

 as a host of /. m. conirostris. 



At Lukolela, Belgian Congo, on December 12, 1930, Chapin (1939, 

 pp. 512, 544-545) examined a large dead tree occupied by a nesting 

 colony of this barbet. He saw five of these honey-guides in the 

 vicinity, and one of them even flew up to and clung to the lower edge 

 of a nesting entrance. He collected two of the honey-guides and 

 found one to be a male with slightly enlarged gonads; the other was 

 a female with a soft egg in the oviduct. Nine weeks later the barbets 

 were still busy at their nests, and one honey-guide was seen in a 

 nearby tree. 



