THE HONEY-GUIDES 211 



the honey-guide had acquired immediate independence or had fallen to some 

 predator. Its period in the nest had been 38 days against the 33-34 days of 

 barbet chicks. 



It may be noted, at this point, that Gilges (1939) found a young 

 lesser (?) honey-guide in a nest of an African hoopoe, Upupa africana, 

 together with three eggs of the host and the shrivelled remains of a 

 dead nestling hoopoe. He considers that in this case "complete 

 ejection was impossible; the honey-guide had succeeded, however, in 

 getting rid of the unfortunate nestling by pushing it into one of the 

 corners of the large cavity." 



To return to Skead's account of the nestling /. minor, we learn 

 that the barbets fed the honey-guide chick the same food they gave 

 to their young — both insect and fruit diet. 



Throughout its stay in the nest the young honey-guide defecated in the nest 

 tunnel. These faeces must have been removed by the barbets at first because 

 the nest was clean after the chick's departure. But through two adventitious 

 holes in the tunnel floor faeces often fell. They contained the hard chitinous 

 parts of insects and also the pips of youngberry fruit which grew in the garden 

 beside the nest-tree. In this respect the honey-guide differed from barbet chicks 

 who reject the hard insect material and pips before swallowing and whose faeces 

 therefore show nothing hard and undigested. 



I sent the insect material to Mr. J. Sneyd Taylor, Government Entomologist 

 at Fort Beaufort C. P., who commented that it "seems to consist mainly of beetles 

 of the chafer type, including those bright-coloured ones found on flowers 

 (Scarabeidae-Melolonthinae) ; also one Cerambycid (Longicorn). It is curious 

 that although so much of the insects remains, there is little trace of the brightly 

 coloured elytra." 



In Cameroons, Bates (1909a, p. 16) noted that a nestling /. minor 

 conirostris taken from a nest of Gymnohucco bonapartei had been fed 

 on insects and fruit of the ''asen" tree, the usual diet of the barbets. 



We now can say with certainty that the nestling Indicator minor 

 possesses the mandibular and maxillary hooks found in its larger con- 

 gener, /. indicator, and possibly also I. variegatus. In the subspecies 

 conirostris, however, Chapin (1924, p. 334) suggested years ago that 

 only the usual type of egg-tooth occurs, but this was probably based 

 on an older nestling that had dropped its hooks. The young of this 

 western race of the lesser honey-guide also has the callosities, or heel 

 pads, found in the typical form (and in the greater honey-guide). 

 Bates (1911, p. 503) took a nestling (subspecies /. minor conirostris) 

 from a nest of Pogoniulus bilineata leucolaima and noted that it had 

 sharp-pointed tubercles on the heels. He also noted that its eye open- 

 ings seemed very small, and that the rim of the nostrils formed a raised 

 ring, which is not noticeable in preserved, dried specimens. This last 

 feature appears to be characteristic of various species of Indicator. 

 Chapin (1939, pp. 544-545) examined another nestling I. minor con- 

 irostris collected by Bates in the Cameroons and also noted that it had 



