DESCRIPTION, DISTRIBUTION, HABITS 



Habits, — The lioney guide is usually encountered on the 

 bush-veld and in forests. It feeds on honey, wax, the larvae, 

 and adult wild bees. The skin of the honey guide is thick and 

 strong and impervious to the stings of bees. Wild bees usually 

 have their hives in holes in tree trunks, in cavities in rocks, 

 and in the ground out of reach of the honey guide. Not to be 

 baffled, this active and intelligent little sparrow-like bird 

 deliberately attracts the attention of anyone who may be in its 

 vicinity. Many a time I have been led to bees' nests by the 

 honey guide. Uttering its harsh cry of churr-churr, it flew 

 from branch to branch, and if I showed any inclination to lag 

 or turn aside it grew excited, fluttered, and called within a few 

 yards of me, alarmed lest I should fail to follow it. When it 

 reached its goal it hovered over the site of the bees' nest, and 

 when it saw me approaching it flew into an adjacent tree and 

 awaited developments, knowing that in taking the comb, enough 

 would be scattered around to provide a feast for it. The Pygmy 

 bushmen and the Hottentots of bygone times made great use 

 of this remarkable peculiarity of the honey guide. Kafirs were 

 not slow to copy. 



The honey guide also co-operates with the honey ratel, a 

 badger-like animal, and leads it to bees' nests in the same way 

 as it does men. This may be doubted, but it is, nevertheless, a 

 fact. In digging out a bee's nest and feasting on the honey 

 and young bees, the ratel is very wasteful, and leaves a plentiful 

 supply for the patiently waiting bird. Honey guides lay their 

 eggs in other birds' nests after the manner of cuckoos. Eggs of 

 Sparrman's honey guide have been found in the nests of swallows 

 and wood hoopoes. They are oval in shape and creamy-white 

 in colour. 



Didric Cuckoo {Chrysococcyx cupreus). (Vol. II., p. 93.) 



Description. — Male : glittering green above with blue and 

 copper reflections. A white streak over the eye and across 

 the middle of the crown. Under surface white, barred on the 

 abdomen with green, principally at the sides. The two centre 

 tail feathers green, the others with white tips. Iris and eyelids 



