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BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



acteristic of birds of the open, types of country — tundra, prairies, etc. 

 In this respect the lyre-tail is an exception. 



As may be seen in our accounts of those species, two other honey- 

 guides (Indicator indicator and /. minor) indulge in rustling flights, the 

 precise meaning of which is not yet clear but which seem to be given 

 by the males at or near the stud posts or song posts. In the lyre-tail, 

 both sexes have the peculiar, specialized rectrices for such sound pro- 

 duction, and both probably do go through the noisy aerial evolutions. 

 As a matter of record it may be pointed out that in the case of Chapin's 

 observation the male he shot did not go through any such aerial evo- 

 lution and the bird that was with it and flew off (and which may have 

 been a female) was heard to make the characteristic noise. It is 

 therefore yet to be demonstrated that the male lyre-tail does actually 

 produce the sound and go through the performance, but there can be 

 little doubt that it does so. 



a 



^?^!^^---'^'"^^^»!.<.^./-s-v^ 



Figure 6, — Route of aerial evolutions of lyre-tailed honey-guide (after Rougcot) : a, obser- 

 vation of July 9, 1950; b, observation of July 23, 1950. In each observation the part a-b 

 is the diving part of the flight and is accompanied by the production of noise. 



