BIG GAME AND ITS BIED-PEOTECTORS 269 



to the hollow logs placed in trees by natives purposely 

 to attract bees, such hives belonging exclusively to those 

 who placed them and never being looted by others, 

 etiquette on this point being strict." Property and its 

 rights, it appears, are recognised by these lowest of 

 savage races. 



Twice I lost chances to finish wounded beasts through 

 this annoying cause, and once a leopard coming straight 

 in to a " kill," quite unsuspicious, was warned by a 

 honey-guide in the tree above. It being close upon 

 dusk, the bird's object, in that case, was clearly distinct 

 from honey-hunting. 



Tiie honey- guides, like some cuckoos (with which 

 bird-group their zygodactylic feet evidence some affinity), 

 are also parasitic — that is, they lay their eggs in the nests 

 of other birds, just as at home the British cuckoo foists 

 its egg upon titlark or wagtail. Bat in one essential 

 the two cases are not parallel. For our cuckoo, being a 

 larger bird of hawk-like appearance, encounters no diffi- 

 culty in thus feloniously depositing its egg ; while by the 

 same token, the young cuckoo, when hatched, is enabled 

 summarily to eject its smaller companions from the 

 nest. But in this case, the intended foster-parents most 

 strongly resent the intrusion ; and that not without 

 reason, since the first object of the honey-guide is to 

 break all the eggs of the lawful owner before depositing 

 its own. The two, moreover, being nearly of a size, 

 fierce fighting frec[uently ensues. But a truly extraor- 

 dinary result follows. For should the intrusive honey- 

 guide so far succeed as to introduce its own egg into the 

 disputed abode, and yet fail to destroy the eggs 

 originally deposited therein. Nature steps in with a 

 physical device expressly designed to uphold the wrong- 

 doer. For the young honey-guide, when hatched, is 

 provided with two strong and sharp hooks — regular 

 forceps — one on either mandible, wherewith to destroy 

 and eject its step-brothers and sisters. 



The sketch annexed is copied in rough outline from 

 a photograph of a nestling Indicator (/. variegatus) 



