218 BULLETIN 208, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



evidence is produced we cannot say that guiding has been demon- 

 strated in the lesser honey-guide, a conclusion in keeping with the 

 large amount of negative evidence of almost all other observers. 



Miscellaneous Behavior 



Pugnacity: As we have already noted in the discussion of its feed- 

 ing habits, the lesser honey-guide is known to attack and drive off 

 other birds, and has even been reported to kill and eat some of them. 

 This pugnacity sometimes occurs between individuals of its own 

 species, although I know of no case in which one of the birds killed 

 another. When Ranger and Skead put two live female lesser honey- 

 guides in a cage together, they immediately began to fight. One 

 morning, at Umtaleni Valley, Skead witnessed a vigorous chasing 

 about by two birds at the edge of a wooded kloof. Then for two 

 minutes there was silence and then the chase recurred with the birds 

 at times only a foot apart, weaving in and out among the trees. This 

 chasing was accompanied by a series of husky squeaks, kisk, kisk, kisk. 

 This went on for about four or five minutes and then Skead saw a bird, 

 apparently one of these two individuals, fly up to the favorite call site 

 and start calling. (From this last action it would seem that this 

 individual was a male.) Five minutes later the bird was at the 

 secondary call site, and, on going closer to watch it better, Skead saw 

 two lesser honey-guides leave; thus, there were two birds there. The 

 puzzling point in all this is that the two birds were amicable at the 

 call site so soon after the violent chasing about that had taken place 

 about 30 yards from that tree. 



It may be recalled that A. Roberts (1911, pp. 73-74) mentions that 

 these birds are "very pugnacious and jealous of other members of their 

 own species straying into their own particular hunting grounds." 

 However, on the contrary, we must also remember that, as described 

 in our discussion of courtship behavior, Williams once saw about a 

 dozen of these birds together in one tree, without any sign of fighting. 



Sleeping and perching: When Ranger and Skead had two lesser 

 honey-guides in a cage, they once flashed an electric torch on them 

 at night and found them asleep with their bills tucked under the wings. 

 The light did not waken them. On another occasion, during the 

 dawn chorus (4 to 4:30 a. m.), they found the caged birds aheady 

 awake but perched in a hunched-up attitude and seemingly very 

 lethargic. 



Skead and Ranger also noticed that the trapped lesser honey-guides 

 have a habit of swivelling forward and downwards on the perch, 

 releasing their foothold onl}'^ when they are almost upside down. One 

 of them habitually swivelled right around and regained its old posi- 



