BIG GAME AND ITS BIRD-PROTECTORS 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. 
The 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. But 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 frequently 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 (I. variegatus) 
