232 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



/. X. xanthonotus: From Bannu and Huzara in western Punjab, near 

 the Afghanistan border, east to Murree, Garhwal, Nepal, and Bhutan 

 at elevations of 5,000 to 9,000 feet. 



/. X. julvus: Naga Hills, northern Assam, Margherita, and the 

 Myitkina District, northern Burma, above 5,000 feet. 



In Garhwal, Koelz was informed by the natives that the bird does 

 not migrate. However, Ripley (1950, p. 376) considered it to be 

 seasonal at high altitudes in Nepal, being absent in the winter. He 

 saw some old wild bees' nests on open rocky ridges above Dhankuta, 

 and thought the area a suitable place for this honey-guide. Local 

 people informed him that such a bird was present there during the 

 monsoon season. 



Breeding 



Nothing is known of the eggs, nestlings, or even the fledglings of 

 this honey-guide. We can only wonder if it will be found to be 

 parasitic in its breeding like the other honej^-guides, although Baker 

 (1927, p. 132) writes that it "la3^s its (presumably) white eggs in 

 nest-holes of Woodpeckers and Barbets as the African species do." 

 In Garhwal and Assam, Koelz thought the breeding season began in 

 late May, judging from the condition of the gonads of his specimens. 



Songs and Calls 



In northern Burma, Smythies (1949, p. 645) heard an occasional 

 single tweet note given by a bird sitting motionless in a high branch 

 of a densely foliaged tree. 



The only other mention of a vocalism in the literature does not 

 help us much. Magrath (1909, pp. 153-154) writes that "according 

 to Colonel Buchanan it has a peculiar note which he was unable to 

 describe." 



Food and Feeding Habits 



Although nothing is known as to whether or not this species ever 

 guides humans or other craatures to bees' nests,^^ it does derive a good 

 deal of its nourishment from the hives of wild bees. In Muree, 

 Magrath (1909) watched one of these birds at a hole in a tree feeding 

 on bees which were swarming there. Stuart Baker writes that it 

 feeds on "hymenoptera and possibly other insects." Koelz ( in litt. 

 to J. P. Chapin) describes seeing these birds, singly or occasionally two 

 or three at a time, near cliffs in Garhwal. On those cliffs were swarms 



82 No credence may be attached to Handley's story of being led to a bees' nest 

 by a "honey-bird" in southern India (Leonard M. H. Handley, Hunter's Moon, 

 p. 218, 1933). No honey-guide is known to occur within a thousand miles of his 

 area, the Blue Hills of Ranga. 



