150 INDICATOKID^ INDICATOE 



Indicator barianus, Heugl. Syst. Uebers. p. 48 (1856) ; Alexander, 



Ibis, 1900, p. 426 [Upper Zambesi] . 

 " Ingecle " of the Zvilus, also applied to other species of Honey Guides. 



Description. Adult male. — General colour above, olive-brown, 

 the head more yellowish, the lower back browner, the ruinp and 

 upper tail-coverts white, wing-coverts and quills dusky brown edged 

 with olive ; central pair of tail-feathers dusky brown, the others 

 with white, which becomes more abundant till the outer pairs are 

 all white with brown tips ; ear-coverts and feathers in front of the 

 eye black ; throat and chest bright yellow, rest of the under parts, 

 including the under wing-coverts and edge of the wing, creamy- 

 white. 



Iris brown ; bare skin ; round the eye bluish-white ; bill, legs 

 greenish-slate. 



Length about 7'0 ; wing 4-05 ; tail 2-70 ; tarsus 0-70 ; culmen 

 0-45. 



The female resembles the male in colour and size, but is slightly 

 smaller ; wing, 4*00. 



Distribution. — Levaillant first found this bird along the south 

 coast of the Colony, in what are now the Knysna and George 

 districts. Though widely distributed throughout South Africa from 

 the neighbourhood of Cape Town to the Zambesi it seems nowhere 

 very common. North of this it is spread over Africa as far as 

 Senegambia on the west and Bogosland on the east, though it does 

 not appears to inhabit the true forest-region of the west coast. 

 The following are localities: Cape Colony — Cape division (S. A. 

 Mus.), Caledon, Swellendam and George (Layard), Uitenhage (Ivy), 

 Grahamstown (Mrs. Barber) ; Natal — Ifafa and Umlatusi river 

 (Woodward,) near Maritzburg (S. A. Mus.) ; Transvaal — Sabi flats 

 in Lydenburg (Eendall), Eustenburg (Ayres) ; Ehodesia-Ft. Chi- 

 quaqua near Salisbury (Sowerby), Upper Zambesi valley above 

 Zumbo (Alexander). 



Habits.— TlhQ Yellow-throated Honey Guide is found singly or 

 in pairs in bush, veld, or forest country, though nowhere very 

 common ; it can often be detected by its shrill and constant 

 chattering, which somewhat resembles that of the English squirrel ; 

 when at rest it often clings upright to the trunk of a tree like a 

 Woodpecker. It feeds on honey and the wax of the comb, and 

 perhaps on the bees as well, and the same stories as are told of 

 Sparrman's Honey Guide are also related of this bird by Ayres, 

 Layard, Eendall, and other observers. 



