78 
ON HONEY GUIDES 
roan antelope at the time. It was within 10 feet of ns, and 
I eonld distinctly see some 8 feet of its length resting on 
the scrub, the rest of the body being hidden, whilst its head, 
with hood fully extended, stood about a foot above the scrub. 
In this position it remained for about half a minute, we standing 
on the defensive, the gnnbearer with a rifle and myself with 
a walking-stick. At short intervals it turned its head, without 
any lateral movement, from one to the other of us, and I 
noticed that the back of the hood was very distinctly more blue 
than the head or the rest of its body, possibly due to the skin 
between the rows of scale being that colour. I estimated the 
hood to be from 4J to 5 inches in width, and the total length 
of the snake at not less than 6 feet. We left it alone, hoping 
to find it on our return, but it had gone. 
Entebbe, Oct. 13, 1913. 
ON HONEY GUIDES 
By Sib F. J. Jackson 
In reply to the invitation in the Journal, Vol. I, No. 2, p. 114, 
to members of the Society to record their experiences of the 
alleged action of Honey Guides in leading those who follow 
them up to dangerous beasts or snakes, I send two extracts 
from an old diary, in the belief that they may be of some interest. 
4 1886, July 8. Merereni. 
4 Whilst passing along a game path through a broad belt 
of large trees, low bush, and scrub, on the way to the open 
glade where the bull oryx was seen two days ago, a honey guide 
picked us up and persistently flew ahead of us, its incessant 
chatter being most irritating. 
4 This continued for about a quarter of a mile, when the bird 
flew off to our right into a large tree about 80 yards from the 
path, and at once began to call much louder, evidently very 
excited. Out of sheer curiosity we followed, and as we got up 
to the tree and were looking up into it, one of the men behind 
