582 The Roller-like Birds 



two, being natives of various parts of Africa. Of these two exceptions the Yellow- 

 backed Honey-guide (Indicator xanthonotus] is found in the Himalayas, and the 

 Malayan Honey-guide (/. archipelagicus] in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. 



The habits of the Honey-guides are not well known, but they are believed 

 to resemble in these features certain Cuckoos in that they lay their eggs in the 

 nests of other birds. Sharpe, writing of the African species, says: "In place of 

 selecting totally different birds, the Honey-guides appear to choose for victims 

 their own nearest kindred, such as Barbets and Woodpeckers; the Little Honey- 

 guide (/. minor} depositing its white eggs in the nests of the Red- vented Wood- 

 pecker, the Little Tinker Barbet or the Pied Barbet, while the large White- 

 backed Honey-guide selects the Banded Barbet as its victim." Their food 

 consists of bees, grubs, and doubtless other insects. Their method of honey- 

 guiding is set forth in the following extracts from well-known writers on African 

 birds. Of the Little Honey-guide (/. minor}Mr. E. L. Layard writes as follows, 

 his authority being Sir John Kirk: "The Honey-guide is found in forests, and 

 often far from water during the dry season. On observing a man it comes flutter- 

 ing from branch to branch in the neighborhood of trees, calling attention. If 

 this be responded to as the natives do by whistling and starting to their feet, the 

 bird will go in a certain direction and remain at a little distance, hopping from 

 one tree to another. On being followed it goes further; and so it will guide the 

 way to a nest of bees. When this is reached it flies about but no longer guides; 

 and then some knowledge is needed to discover the nest even when pointed out to 

 within a few trees. I have known this bird, if the man after taking up the direc- 

 tion for a little then turns away, come back and offer to point out another nest 

 in a different part. But if it does not know of two nests it will remain behind. 

 . . . The object this bird has in view is clearly the young bees. It will guide 

 to nests having no honey, and seems equally delighted if the comb containing the 

 grubs be torn out, when it is seen pecking at it." Unfortunately it does not 

 discriminate between domesticated and wild bees, and will guide as readily to 

 hives about a farmhouse as to one in the forest. 



Another African traveler, Mr. W. T. Barnaby, has published a recent account 

 (Ibis, Oct., 1900). He had heard of this peculiarity of the Honey-guide and 

 requested of his native "boys" that they notify him the first time they heard 

 one calling. He writes: "On another occasion, just after I had shot a hyaena 

 and while we were engaged in skinning it, my boys told me they could hear the 

 Honey-guide calling to them. I went with them into the bush, and we saw a 

 little brown bird flying from tree to tree, and heard it uttering a kind of twitter- 

 ing note. After following the bird a distance of some three or four hundred 

 yards through the brush 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 dwarf Honey-guides (Prodotiscus\ of which three species are now 

 known, are distinguished by having only ten feathers in the tail, and a much 

 thinner bill than the species in the larger genus. The Brown Honey-guide 

 (P. regulus] of Natal is only five inches in length and is marked at once by its 

 nearly uniform brown plumage; little is known regarding its habits. 



