the Birds of Ngamiland. 395 



one of these birds, which I had -wounded. It had its wing 

 broken close to the body. When I went to pick it up, instead 

 of its fluttering and jumping about as birds usually do in 

 such a condition, I found it hopping about quietly on the 

 ground pretending to feed and pick up insects. I stood quite 

 still and watched it closely ; it was not really feeding, and 

 was only picking up little twigs and dropping them again and 

 frequently taking swift glances up at me to see what I was 

 doing. Presently it came on to my boot and then climbed 

 vap my leg on to my waistcoat, going round my leg just as 

 if it had been a tree-trunk, and pretending to pick things off 

 while constantly peeping up at my face with its bright eyes. 

 I have not the least doubt that the bird was playing a 

 deliberate and very plucky game of bluff. We know that 

 in the animal kingdom a wounded or sickly member is 

 frequently set upon and killed by its fellows, and this bird 

 was obviously trying to disguise its crippled condition in the 

 hope that I should not attempt to molest it. I have had two 

 very similar experiences with Larks {Mirafra). I need 

 hardly say I was quite upset at having to kill this bird. 



Indicator indicator (Gmel.). 



Indicator sparmanni Stark & Sclater, iii. p. 146. 



Indicator indicator E-eich. ii. p. 104. 



a. S- Mababe Flats, 3000 ft., 12th Aug. (No. 90, 

 R. B. W.) 



Iris brown ; bill pink ; feet dark grey. 



The Honey-Guide was particularly plentiful in the mopani 

 forest north-east of Lake Ngami. Old mopani trees afford 

 numberless holes and cracks for bees^ nests, which are very 

 plentiful in this district, and this no doubt accounts for the 

 numbers of Honey-Guides. In all my experiences of African 

 travel I had never previously seen any Indicator lead a man 

 to a bees^ nest, but in Ngamiland I had the pleasure of 

 following these wonderful little guides to some score of 

 nests, from which we obtained excellent honey. Occasionally 

 the nests were as much as half a mile from where the bird 

 first attracted our attention. Sometimes when in camp, and 



