204 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in a nest of a larger stripe-breasted swallow, Hirundo cucullata, at 

 Pirie, Buffalo Kiver Basin, eastern Cape Province, which he could not 

 identify with certainty but which he presumed was deposited by a 

 lesser honey-guide. Inasmuch as this swallow is known to be victim- 

 ized by Indicator indicator, it would seem possible that the greater 

 honey-guide was involved in this instance, but the record remains 

 unidentifiable. In a later paper Godfrey (1930) writes that the lesser 

 honey-guide lays in the nest of this swallow, but whether this is merely 

 an uncritical acceptance of his earlier doubtful statement or whether 

 he had accumulated additional evidence in the intervening years is 

 impossible to say. 



Questionable Host Kecords 



Another bird not yet definitely known to be parasitized but which 

 may well be so affected is the white-eared barbet, Stactolaema leucotis 

 leucotis (Sundevall). Roberts (1930a, p. 25) noted lesser and varie- 

 gated honey-guides trying to enter nest holes of this species in northern 

 Zululand. In Tangan3dka Territory the Moreaus (1937, pp. 173-174) 

 similarly saw lesser honey-guides trying very persistently to enter 

 nests of white-eared barbets (subspecies kilimense Shelley). Lack 

 (1936, p. 825) also witnessed lesser honey-guides making repeated at- 

 tempts to enter nests of this barbet at Amani, Tanganyika Territory, 

 August 15 and 30. 



Still another barbet, the naked-faced barbet Qymnohucco calvus 

 calvus (Lafresnaye), is also probably parasitized but cannot be said 

 to be recorded definitely as a host species, only inferentially so. In 

 this case the data all have to do with the subspecies Indicator minor 

 pallidus in Nigeria. Marchant (1950, p. 25; 1951, p. 73) writes that 

 the honey-guide was never met with except at the breeding colonies 

 of Qymnohucco calvus, "which species it evidently parasitized." At 

 these colonies, from about January to May, one or two of the honey- 

 guides could almost always be found. They were never actually seen 

 to enter one of the nest holes as the barbets invariably drove them off. 

 Apparently the sight of a honey-guide was enough to alarm the barbets, 

 which then immediately flew after it and chased it away. 



Bannerman (1951, p. 348) on the basis of Marchant's statement 

 repeats the probability of this barbet being the host of Indicator 

 minor pallidus. 



One woodpecker has also been recorded — too uncertainly for inclu- 

 sion in our list of hosts — as a victim of the lesser honey-guide. Captain 

 Pitman writes me that he received from C. W. Benson a single egg 

 of Campethera b. hennetiii (A. Smith), Bennett's woodpecker, collected 

 at Mzunba, Nyasaland, October 13, 1948. "It measures only 18.4 

 by 15.3 mm. and is far too small for the egg of this woodpecker, 



