228 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In Mozambique, Jack Vincent (1935, p. 13) observed an example of 

 the subspecies meliphilus creeping about like a woodpecker on the 

 vertical trunk of an enormous forest tree, and in and out of a narrow- 

 crack in it. In Nigeria, Hutson (in Hutson and Bannerman, 1931, p. 

 201) noted a bird (subspecies hutsoni) busy in the foliage of a thickly 

 leaved tree. While in neither of these cases is it stated that the bird 

 was foraging for food, that would seem to be the implication. 



Specimens caught by Sabater in Spanish Guinea came to traps 

 baited with honeycomb. 



Nestling : Our knowledge is limited to the bare statement by Bates 

 (1930, p. 267) to the effect that a young least honey-guide found in a 

 smaU barbet's nest had its stomach filled with the kind of food that the 

 barbets give their own young. 



Description 



Indicator exilis exilis 



Adult male : Almost exactly a miniature version of Indicator minor 

 conirostria in coloration except on the underparts, which are paler in 

 exilis; middle of forehead and a line from there to the anterior angle of 

 the eye olive blackish; below this line a white loreal patch on either 

 side; rest of forehead, crown, occiput, and nape deep olive to dark 

 olive, the crown, occiput, and nape with an olive green wash; inter- 

 scapulars, scapulars, upper wing-coverts, feathers of the back and 

 rump, and the upper tail-coverts deep olive to dark olive, conspicu- 

 ously edged with olive ochre, making a strikingly streaked pattern; 

 remiges very dark olive brown to fuscous, the primaries narrowly and 

 the secondaries broadly edged externally with olive ochre to aniline 

 yellow, the remiges internally edged with whitish; median two pairs 

 of rectrices very dark olive brown to fuscous, slightly paler along the 

 margin of the inner web and narrowly edged with aniline yellow on the 

 outer web ; next pair simOar but with a fairly extensive area of white, 

 this area more extensive on the inner than on the outer web, but tipped 

 with dark brown ; the outer three pairs white tipped broadly with dark 

 olive brown; cheeks and auriculars deep olive to dark olive to olive 

 brownish ; chin and upper throat whitish ; a malar stripe running from 

 the corner of the mouth diagonally backwards very dark olive to dark 

 chaetura; breast, abdomen, and sides grayish olive, the lower abdomen 

 and under taU-co verts creamy white ; feathers of the flanks with broad 

 shaft streaks of dark brownish olive, edged and tipped with creamy 

 white; under wing-coverts creamy white with a varying amount of 

 grayish wash; iris brown; eyelids dark gray; bill brownish black with 

 the base of the mandible light pinkish gray; tarsi and toes dusky 

 grayish green. Measurements in millimeters: wing 70-78, tail 45-51, 

 culmen from base 8-9.8, tarsus 15-16. 



