126 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



" 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 of 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 (" 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 the honey." 



Forest birds that went about in parties of ten or a 

 dozen individuals, and were very noisy and quarrelsome, 

 were the Colies, or Mouse birds. They are brown birds, 

 having rather long tails, and are, I believe, polygamous. 

 These birds are certainly not calculated to induce 

 the spread of that particular state of being, for they 

 appeared to spend the whole day in chasing one 

 another from bush to bush, with loud chattering cries, 

 and there fighting amongst themselves. Whether 

 the wives were merely quarrelling with each other, 

 or whether they had lately unearthed some specially 

 convincing piece of scandal in connection with the 



