THE HONEY-GUIDES 203 



chirri-chirri-chirri . . . chirri-chirri-chirri. I went out and saw this 

 greedy young rascal of a Honey-guide being waited on 'bill and foot* 

 by the Tits ; the more they fed him the louder and more incessantly did 

 he scream for more. This went on for four or five days when his 

 screams ceased, and he took himself to the bush." 



Later (p. 102) in discussing the black tit, Parus niger, he writes 

 that one set of eggs "like the Grey Tit's, also contained the white egg 

 of a Honey-guide; I think, I. indicator, but on that point I cannot 

 speak with assurance." Priest's account leaves much to be desired 

 as to definiteness. Whether there was a single young honey-guide or 

 two of them, whether any young gray tits grew up in the same nest, 

 and whether the species of parasite was /. minor or /. indicator are 

 all unclear. 



Panis niger niger Vieillot. Southern black tit. 



Parus niger Vieillot, Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle . . . , new 

 ed., vol. 20, p. 325, 1818. (Africa; Sondag [= Sundays] River, eastern Cape 

 Province, ex Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique, vol. 3, pi. 

 137, 1802.) 



One uncertain record. 



Capt. Cecil D. Priest informs me that at Wedza, Southern Rhodesia, 

 he once found a nest of the black tit containing an egg of the lesser 

 honey-guide. This is the only record known to me. However, in his 

 book on the bu'ds of Southern Rhodesia (1936, p. 102) he writes of this 

 record as pertaining to the greater honey-guide, /. indicator. 



Cinnyricinclus leucogaster verreauxi (Bocage). Southern violet-backed starling. 

 Pholidauges verreaiixi Bocage, in Finsch and Hartlaub, Die Vfigel Ost-Airikas, 

 in Baron C. C. von der Decken's Reisen in Ost Afrika in 1859-61, vol. 4, 

 p. 867, 1870. (Caconda.) 



This handsome starling is known as a host of the lesser honey-guide 

 on the basis of one record. 



A set of three eggs of the starling with one of the parasite was col- 

 lected at Mokeetsi, Transvaal, October 20, 1928, and is now in the 

 collections of the Transvaal Museum, according to A. Roberts (1939, 

 pp. 102-105). The same record is listed by Priest (1948, p. 64). 



Petronia superciliaris (Blyth). South African rock sparrow. 



Gymnorhis superciliaris Blyth, Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. 45, p. 553, 1845. 

 (South Africa.) 



Known as a victim of the lesser honey-guide only in the eastern 

 Cape Province. Victor Pringle informs me that at Bedford on many 

 occasions he found the honey-guide at or near nests of this sparrow, 

 and once he found a young Indicator minor in one of these nests. 

 ^Aside from the species discussed above as hosts of the lesser honey- 

 guide, it may be mentioned that Godfrey (1912, p. 11) found an egg 



