THE HONEY-GUIDES 235 



Description 



Indicator xanthonotus xanthonotus 



Adult male: Forehead, anterior part of crown, chin, and cheeks 

 silky golden yellow; feathers of top and sides of head (aside from 

 cheeks) and back of neck chaetura brown washed and margined with 

 olive-yellow (this color often hiding the dark brown areas), and, on 

 their concealed basal portions, yellowish white ; interscapulars fuscous 

 brown, edged with olive green; scapulars, upper wing-coverts, and 

 remiges chaetura drab to fuscous, margined with Naples yellow, these 

 edgings more pronounced on the scapulars and upper wing-coverts, 

 less distinct on the remiges; the secondaries and longer scapulars with 

 a whitish margin on their inner webs; feathers of upper back fuscous 

 edged with olive yellow; median area of lower back and rump bright 

 orange-yellow, the basal portions of the feathers paler, and many of 

 them with a dusky streak or spot; lateral parts of rump and upper 

 taQ-co verts blackish, the longer coverts edged with yellowish white; 

 rectrices fuscous black, the outermost pair, which are narrow, pointed, 

 and about 20 mm. shorter than the next pair, tipped with white or 

 grayish white, and with a broad streak of the same extending along 

 the shaft, the next pair (about 8 mm. shorter than the more median 

 ones) similar except that the terminal white area is confined to the 

 inner web, rest of rectrices with no terminal white; throat ashy gray 

 lightly washed with olive yellow ; breast ashy gray with an olivaceous 

 tinge, the feathers with fuscous shaft stripes giving a streaky appear- 

 ance to this area; abdomen, flanks, and under taU-coverts similar but 

 with the shaft stripes so much widened as to practically cover the 

 feathers, which thus appear fuscous to dull earth brown with lateral 

 margins of olivaceous ashy gray; under wing-coverts whitish, some- 

 what mottled with blackish and washed with yellowish or buffy at the 

 edge of the wing; undersurface of remiges dull earth brown, margined 

 internally with paler; iris dark brown; bare circumocular area very 

 pale green; bill yellow, somewhat dusky terminally; at the base of 

 both the maxilla and the mandible, as well as on the chin, black bristles 

 are present, none present above the large, swoUen, triangular nostrils; 

 tarsi and toes pale greenish horny. Measurements in millimeters: 

 wing 92-96; tail 56-61 ; culmen 8-9; tarsus 13-14. Weight, 29 grams. 



Adult female: Similar to the male but slightly duller, the rump 

 patch sulphur yellow, the yeUow areas on the forehead, crown, and 

 sides of throat paler and less extensive; whole bird somewhat smaller. 

 Measurements in millimeters: wing 82-92, tail 55, culmen 8.6; tarsus 

 12.7. 



