196 



LITTLE HONEYGUIDE. 



Indicator minor, AUCTORUM. 



Head and neck above grey ; back, wings, and margin of the 

 quill and tail-feathers, yellowish- olive ; plumage beneath 

 cinereous ; chin and belly whitish. 



Le Petit Indicateur, Male, Le Vaill. Ois. d'Af. v. 242. 



THE first discovery of this remarkably small Honey- 

 guide was made by Le Vaillant in the Mimosa 

 woods bordering the river of Elephants, and it was 

 found in other similar situations in the south of 

 Africa, but it does not appear to have been hitherto 

 known as a native also of the western coast. A 

 single specimen accompanied the collections from 

 Senegal, and although Le Vaillant's account of his 

 Petit Indicateur is in some respects deficient in 

 details, it agrees sufficiently well with the Senegal 

 bird to lead us to believe they are both of the same 

 species. 



The size of our specimen is below that of a 

 sparrow, the length being only five inches and a 

 half. The bill is thicker than in the other species, 

 occasioned by the upper mandible being somewhat 

 swollen or gibbous on its sides, quite as much as is 

 seen in the bill of the Buphaga, to which genus 



