Mandihiikir Hook oj the //oueif-GxiJe 79 



IX. — A Fiivtlier Xoie on the Mandibular Hook of the Honeu- 

 Gxdde. By Alwin Haagner, F.Z.S., Col.M.B.O.U. 



Since writing my account of the strange occurrence of a 

 pair of hooks on the extremity of the beak of the nestlino- 

 ^^ Indicator^' or Honey-Guide (see 'Journal of the S.A. 

 Ornithologists' Union,' June 1907, pp. 1-5), I have come 

 across another case which increases our knowledge a little. 

 The specimen from \^ hicli my original notes were taken was 

 only half-fledged, and I was rather curious as to the approxi- 

 mate age at which these temporary appendages would be 

 cast from the young bird. 



Mr. Austin Roberts brought me in a living example of 

 Indicator maior (Yellow-throated Honey-Guide) some 5 or 

 G months ago, which he had taken out of the nest of the 

 (Jape Sparrow (Passer melanurus). This bird was fully 

 fledged and ready to fly, and had both the hooks still 

 attached to the beak. It was placed in a cage, where its 

 foster-parents fed it from without. 



A few days after being caged the bird lost one of the 

 hooks (the lower one), whereupon we decided to kill and 

 skin it, in order to preserve the specimen with the remaining 

 hook attached. 



There is nothing new to be added to my previous notes so 

 far as the physiological characters are concerned, but I was 

 very pleased to obtain this example as further evidence, 

 because it proved (1) that the first specimen was not a 

 " sport,^' accident, or chance-occurrence; (2) that the 

 characteristic is applicable to at least the genus Indicator, 

 since the first case was that of Indicator variegatus, while 

 the present one is that of another species — Indicator maior ! 

 It would further seem that my surmise in the first paper, 

 that these hooks fall off upon maturity, was correct. 



