202 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



measured 20.5 by 17.5 mm., which dimensions agree with those of 

 I. minor eggs. In his most recent publication, Benson (1953, p. 45) 

 accepts this identification. 



Dendropicos fuscescens natalensis Roberts. Zulu cardinal woodpecker. 



Dendropicos hartlaubi natalensis Robeets, Ann. Transvaal Mus., vol. 10, p. 84, 

 1924. (Red Hill, Natal.) 



I know of only a single instance of the cardinal woodpecker being 

 parasitized by the lesser honey-guide. 



A. Eoberts (1936, p. 193) found a young honey-guide (which he 

 believed to be 7. minor minor) in a nest of this bii'd on the Mkusi 

 River, Zululand. This seems to be the same record as the one he 

 refers to in an earlier paper (1930a, p. 25). 



Mesopicus griseocephalus griseocephalus (Boddaert). Olive woodpecker. 



Picus griseocephalus Boddaert, Table des planches enlumin^ez d'histoire 

 naturelle, p. 49, 1783. (Cape of Good Hope, ex Daubenton, Planches 

 enlumin^es, pi. 786.) 



One case has come to my attention. 



Layard (1867, p. 243) records this woodpecker (under the name of 

 Picus capensis) as a victim of the lesser honey-guide, but gives no 

 further information. Sparrow (1936, p. 5) lists the olive woodpecker 

 as one of the known hosts, possibly on the basis of Layard's statement. 



Hirundo albigularis Strickland. White-throated swallow. 



Hirundo albigularis Strickland, in Jardine, Contributions to ornithology, text 

 p. 17, pi. 15, 1849. (South Africa.) 



One record. 



A. Roberts (1939, pp. 102-103) reports a set of two eggs of this 

 swallow with one of the lesser honey-guide, collected at Umzumbi, 

 Natal, December 12, 1920, now in the collections of the Transvaal 

 Museum. 



This is the only bird among the victims of the lesser honey-guide 

 that does not breed in a hole or in a completely enclosed nest. Priest 

 (1948, p. 102) describes the nest as a deep cup made of pellets of mud, 

 lined with grass and feathers, and built under a ledge or culvert or on 

 the rafters of an old barn. 



Poms afer parvirostris Shelley. Mashonaland gray tit. 



Parus afer parvirostris Shelley, Birds of Africa, vol. 2, pp. 225, 241, 1900. 

 (Salisbury.) 



Two probable but not wholly certain records. 



Priest (1936, p. 99) records a pair of these tits feeding a young 

 fledgling lesser honey-guide in his garden at Wedza on November 15 

 and states that three years previous to this he "obtained an egg of 

 /. m. minor from a nest of this tit in a hole in a tree, also in my garden. 

 It was about November 15th that I heard a loud and oft repeated 



