212 BULLETIN 2 8, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a conspicuous heel pad, bearing rasplike scales similar to those of a 

 young barbet. This chick, of unlvnown age, was more completely 

 feathered below than above, although its remiges were nearly half 

 grown. The wings showed no reduction of the inner primaries as 

 found in some species of woodpeckers. The bird no longer had any 

 sign of an egg-tooth or of manibular hooks. 



The Postnestling Stage 



I have never seen a fledgling Indicator minor in the field, and it is 

 astonishing how many observers with many years of field experience 

 have similarly never met with one. Skead's account of the prolonged 

 nest life of a lesser honey-guide, quoted in the previous section of this 

 report, ends with the statement that after it left the nest he never saw 

 it again, although the foster parents did stay around in his garden, 

 and their subsequent activities showed no sign of any interest in their 

 pseudo-offspring. Skead suggests, from this, that either the young 

 honey-guide had become immediately self-sufficient or had met with 

 some disaster. The former is not likely in view of what we know in 

 the related greater honey-guide. 



Pringle writes me, from memory, that he has seen young lesser 

 honey-guides with pied barbets "until about two weeks after leaving 

 the nest," but, unfortunately, he was unable to provide any detailed 

 notes. This raises a question on which we have as yet no evidence. 

 It is known that recently fledged 3'Oung barbets return to the nest for 

 sleeping as do their parents; whether young (or adult) honey-guides 

 also sleep in nest holes or merely perch for the night in the denser part 

 of the branches and foliage of trees is not known. But, if young honey- 

 guides do not return to the nest holes as do barbets, it would seem to 

 follow that this discrepancy in their habits is not necessarily critical 

 for the relations between the parasite and its foster parent. Priest 

 (1936, p. 99) observed a young honey-guide, presumed to be minor 

 (and this presumption may be accepted in view of the fact that juvenal 

 /. indicator have noticeably yellow throats), not long out of the nest, 

 in his garden where it was fed for four or five days by its foster parents, 

 a pair of Mashonaland gray tits {Parus afer parvirostris) . From his 

 brief account we get the impression that the fledgling honey-guide was 

 incessantly noisy, giving a repetitive series of chirri-chirri notes, and 

 acted as if insatiable as far as food was concerned, Hke most young 

 altricial birds. 



Nothing is known as to whether the full-grown young birds ever 

 £orm loose, small flocks. In the related /. indicator (where the young 

 are identifiable from their plumage) such loose, small aggregations are 

 not unknown. 



