INDICATOEID^ 



INDICATOR 153 



Description. Adult male. — Head and neck greenish- ash, the 

 back, ■wings and upper tail-coverts washed with golden-oUve ; wing- 

 quills dusky washed with golden-olive on the outer edge, tail like 

 that of the other species with the four central feathers black, the 

 others with increasing amounts of white till the outermost pair are 

 only tipped with black; below, greenish-grey becoming almost 

 white on the abdomen and lower tail-coverts; ear-coverts silvery 

 bordered below by a darker malar stripe. 



Iris brown ; bill black, pale brown at base of lower mandible ; 

 legs and feet bluish-black. 



Length in flesh 6*6, in skin 6-25 ; wing 3-5 ; tail 2-30 ; tarsus 

 05 ; culmen 03. 



The female resembles the male in plumage, but is slightly 

 smaller, wing 3'3. 



Distribution. — The little Honey Guide seems to be the com- 

 monest and most widely-spread of the South African species ; 

 though not recorded from near Cape Town, it has been met with 

 in the north-western and southern districts of the Colony, throughout 

 Natal, Mashonaland and German south-west Africa, but has not 

 yet been noticed in the Transvaal so far as I am aware. North of 

 the Zambesi this bird ranges through Nyasaland and German 

 east Africa as far as Bogosland and Somaliland, while in West 

 Africa it is replaced by a closely allied species. 



The following are South African localities : Cape Colony — 

 Namaqualand (Levaill.), George (Atmore), Oudtshoorn and Knysna 

 (Victorin), Uitenhage (Ivy), Stockenstroom (Atmore), and King 

 William's Town (Bt. Mus.), Port St. John's (S. A.Mus.); Natal— 

 Ifafa (Woodward), Pinetown (Ayres in Bt. Mus.), Maritzburg 

 (FitzSimmons), Echowe (Woodward) ; Transvaal — Swaziland 

 (Buckley in Bt. Mus.) ; Ehodesia — Salisbury dist. (Marshall) ; 

 German south-west Africa — Gt. Namaqualand, Otjimbinque in 

 Damaraland (Andersson) ; Portuguese east Africa — Mapacuti in 

 Beira dist. (Cavendish). 



Habits. — This bird is found singly or in pairs, and like others of 

 the genus feeds on bees and their wax and honey ; though it has 

 not got 80 good a reputation as the other species in the matter of 

 leading people to bees' nests, according to Layard and Ivy ; the 

 Woodwards and Marshall speak of it as behaving in this respect 

 like the other Honey Guides. The stomach is generally found to be 

 full of a white substance supposed to be wax, but more probably this 

 is the pollen always found adhering to the hind legs of bees, which 

 it catches on the wing like a fly-catcher ; it is often found watching 



