THE HONEY-GUIDES 253 



even get other food from bees' nests. The followmg data, culled 

 from the published observations and from the information kindly- 

 supplied by correspondents show that this species feeds largely on 

 scale insects, but also on other forms of insects and fruit. 



Moreau (in Sclater and Moreau, 1932, p. 666) obtained four 

 specimens at Amani, Tanganyika Territory, and found in their 

 gizzards quantities of scale insects and their waxy exudation. In a 

 single case of the four there were predatory beetle larvae. Moreau 

 comments on the fact that it is quite extraordinary for an insectivorous 

 bird to be so specific in its diet. In Kenya Colony, Williams (in litt.) 

 informs me that in a number of individuals collected he found remains 

 of scale insects, lepidopterous larvae, and unidentified insects or 

 spiders, and an unidentifiable orange waxy substance. The van 

 Somerens (1949, p. 43) found this honey-guide at Bundibugyo, 

 Bwamba forest, western Uganda, flitting around an Erythrina tree 

 where it appeared to be disturbing insects among the foliage and 

 flowers and then catching them in flight. They "were interested in 

 this behavior for it contrasted very much with the feeding habits . , . 

 in the Nairobi-Ngong district of Kenya, where the principal food is 

 scale insects and mealy bugs." They also noted the species twice in 

 low Gi/mnosporia trees in full bloom, "to which myriads of small 

 hymenopterous insects and Diptera were attracted." Also in the 

 Bwamba forest, Williams saw the species singly or in twos, especially 

 with the sunbird Anthreptes fraseri axillaris (Reichenow). Its appear- 

 ance was rather like a tit, and it would sometimes hang upside down 

 while feeding. 



Williams writes me that in the dry Kenya highland forests he has 

 watched this species exploring lichen-covered branches, bunches of 

 Loranthus, and similar objects, apparently seeking small insects and 

 spiders. He has "watched the birds feeding on something they got 

 off lichened branches, perhaps scale insects (?), and once . . . saw 

 one eating ripe berries of Loranthus sp., together with Zosterops.'' 



In the Belgian Congo, Chapin (1939, pp. 535-536) found some soft 

 material that may have been caterpillar remains in the gizzard of a 

 specimen, and Marchant (1951, p. 74), in Nigeria, found green limpet- 

 shaped objects which might have been "shield bugs" in his example. 

 In the Mwinilunga district. Northern Rhodesia, Wliite (1946, p. 73) 

 recorded unidentified insect remains in the gizzard of a bird he col- 

 lected. In Southern Rhodesia, Edwards (in litt.) saw one at Gatooma, 

 acting much like a bush warbler (Eremomela scotops), creeping about 

 the higher branches of the trees in search of insects and occasionally 

 flying out and catching insects on the wing like a flycatcher. Town- 

 ley also noted the species hawking about after insects like a typical 

 flycatcher, and found remains of small beetles and other insects, but 



