258 BULLETIN 2 8, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



range suddenly appears in fair numbers in the spring that fact may be 

 looked upon as suggestive of a migratory movement. When, on top 

 of this, it is found that all the individuals are of one sex — males, and 

 that not until some time later do the females appear, the migration 

 hypothesis seems the only one able to account for all the facts in- 

 volved." However, in 1950 I went back to the same area, but earlier 

 in the season, and found Prodotiscus regulus still there while it was still 

 winter (end of August). In addition, the first sharp-billed honey- 

 guide that I collected proved to be a female. The bird cannot there- 

 fore be said to be migratory in an}^ regular sense, but it still seems not 

 improbable that the 1924 experience did reflect some local influx of 

 males. 



Recently some additional evidence of this sort has come to me from 

 W, L. Chiazzari, who writes me that in the Richmond District, Natal, 

 ''there did appear to be some fluctuation in the numbers which 

 assumed a seasonal character, but at no time, winter months included, 

 was it entirely absent." On the other hand, at King William's Town, 

 Skead has observed it in every month of the year. 



Beeeding Range and Season 



In view of the fact that no one has yet found an egg or a nesthng 

 of this species, the data relevant to breeding are very scanty and are 

 all from the southern part of its range, as follows: 



Belgian Congo: Upemba Park, October 28, male with enlarged 

 testes collected. 



Northern Rhodesia: Shiwa Nganda near Lake Young, October 11, 

 male collected, gonads becoming enlarged, "soon to breed." 



Southern Rhodesia: Rumani Estate, January 10, honey-guide 

 reported seen leaving nest of Petronia superciliaris, one small white 

 egg (Prodotiscus?) in nest. (Townley; in catalog of C. D. Priest egg 

 collection in Victoria Memorial Museum, Salisbury; specimen not to be 

 found in 1951.) 



South Africa: Mooi River, central Natal, March 11, a fledgling 

 seen for two days attended by a pair of Petronia superciliaris; Rich- 

 mond, Natal, February 5, adult Prodotiscus seen leaving a nest of 

 Apus coffer (in an old nest of Hirundo cucullata), but which did not 

 contain an egg attributable to Prodotiscus. 



Courtship and Mating 



In central Natal, Vincent (in Roberts, 1930) noted that in spring 

 and summer "both birds of a pair will fly forth and flit erratically 

 round at a very considerable height, one chasing the other and uttering 



