HONE Y- G UIDES. 
569 
especially as regards the zygodactyle foot. The oil-gland is tufted, and there are 
no blind appendages (cseca) to the intestine. The honey-guides are principally 
African, no less than ten species out of twelve being found in the Ethiopian region. 
I 11 the Himalaya, however, the yellow-backed honey-guide is a resident, and in the 
mountains of the Malay Peninsula and in Borneo occurs the most eastern represen¬ 
tative of the genus, the Malayan honey-guide. 
Two genera only are known, the true honey - guides ( Indicator ) and the 
dwarf honey - guides ( Prodoriscus ). The latter genus contains two species, one 
from South-Eastern, the other from Western and Equatorial Africa, both of them 
WHITE-EARED HONEY-GUIDE (§ nat. size). 
having only ten tail-feathers instead of twelve, like the rest of the honey-guides. 
Sir John Kirk states that “ the honey-guide is found in forests, and often far from 
water, even during the dry season. On observing a man, it comes fluttering from 
branch to branch in the neighbouring trees, calling attention. 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 by the bird to within a few trees. I 
have known a honey-guide, if a man, after taking the direction for a little, then 
turns away, to 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 difficulty is 
that it will point to tame bees in a bark hive as readily as to those in the 
