69.2 Letters, Extructs, Notices, Ss^c. 



which was not far distant, 1 found tlie boys engaged in 

 chopping out a bee^s-ne>t, to which they told me the Honey- 

 bird had led them. I observed them leave a small portion 

 of the comb on a branch near the nest, for the use, as they 

 said, of the " Honey- bird,'^ but I did not, on this occasion 

 actually see the bird myself. 



On another occasion, just after I had shot a hysena and 

 while we were engaged in skinning it, my boys told me they 

 could hear the Honey-bird calling to them. I went with 

 them into the bush, and saw a little brown bird flying from 

 tree to tree, and heard it uttering a kind of twittering note. 

 After following the bird a distance of some three or four 

 hundred yards through the bush, my boys discovered the 

 bees'-nest in the trunk of a tree, not far from the ground, 

 and immediately proceeded to cut out the honey. 



The belief in this curious instinct in the Honey-bird is so 

 universally prevalent among the natives of Eastern Africa, 

 and instances of success in obtaining honey in this way have 

 been given by so many travellers, that I cannot believe there 

 is room for any doubt on the subject. I may remind you 

 that, among other well-known travellers, Mr. John G. Millais 

 (see his 'Breath from the Veldt,' pp. 185-187) has recorded 

 his personal experience of it, and has given a sketch of the 

 bird guiding its human allies in search of honey. 



Yours &c., 



W. T. Barnkby. 



July 24tli, I'JUO. 



Sirs, — It may, I think, interest the readers of ' The Ibis ' 

 to hear that, during our recent expedition to the Upper Nile, 

 we had several opportunities of observing that remarkable 

 bird, the Shoe-bill {Balceniceps rex). When in company 

 with Major Peake, R.A., in the Egyptian gunboat 'Me- 

 temmeh," in January of this year, I first saw specimens of 

 this bird on the Bahr-Ghazal, near the mouth of the Bahr- 

 Horur, in about lat. 9° N., where I shot one with a rifle. 

 It Avas standing in a marsh alongside the river, some 20 

 yards from the bank. Later on in this year, about the end 

 of April, 1 again observed the Shoe-bill on the Bahr-Jcbcl 

 and U])pcr Nile, as far south us Bor. 



