INDICATOR XANTHONOTUS.
Yellow-rumped Honey-griide.
Indicator xanthonotus, Blyth, Joum. As. Soc. Beng. xi. p. 166 (1842), xiv. p. 198 1845.—Jerd. 111. Ind. Orn.
pi. 1. (1847).— Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. p. 65 (1849).—Bp. Consp. i. p. 100 (1850).—Jerd.
B. Ind. i. p. 306 (1862).—Cab. & Heine, Mus. Heine, Theil iv. p. 5, note (1862).—Blyth, Ibis, 1866,
p. 357.—Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 205 (1870).— Jerd. Ibis, 1872, p. 10— Hume, Str. F. 1873, p. 313.—Sto-
liczka, tom. cit. p. 425.—Sharpe in Rowley’s Orn, Misc. i. p. 206 (1876).—Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 88.
Indicator radclyffii, Hume, Ibis, 1870, p. 529.
Pseudofringilla xanthonotus, Hume, Str. F. 1873, p. 314.
Pseudospiza xanthonotus, Sharpe, in Rowley’s Orn. Misc, i. p. 207 (1876).
T he Honey-guides are better known in Africa than in India or any other part of the Old World; several species
inhabit the former continent, and their habit of conducting people to bees’ nests has gained them the familiar
appellation by which they are now universally known. In the Himalayas they are represented by the bird
now figured, while in Malacca a second species ( I. malayanus) occurs, which is again replaced in Borneo by
a third species, I. archipelagicus. These three Honey-guides are all extremely rare, and it is very doubtful
whether they are really congeneric with the Honey-guides of Africa. Mr. Hume has already pointed out
some structural differences in the Indian birds, and it may be found necessary to separate them generically
from their African relatives.
The following description is copied from the article on Indicator published in the late Mr. Dawson Rowley’s
‘ Ornithological Miscellany’:—
“ Adult male. Forehead, chin, and cheeks silky golden-yellow; back and sides o f the head and neck, and
interscapular region, blackish brown, every feather margined with olive-yellow. If the feathers of the head and
neck (but not of the interscapulary region) are lifted, their basal halves will be found to be yellowish white. The
wings and scapulars are black, or at any rate so deep and black a brown that most people would call them
black ; and all the coverts and quills, except the first few primaries, are conspicuously margined with bright
olive-yellow; the tertiaries -and longer scapularies with a conspicuous marginal white stripe on the inner
webs; the tail black, the outermost tail-feathers (which are narrow, pointed, and 0 8 inch shorter than the
next pair) broadly tipped with white or greyish white, and with a streak of the same running up the shaft,
the next pair (which are about 0 3 inch shorter than the rest o f the tail) similar, except that the white tipping
is confined to the inner web. Central portion of middle and lower back and rump bright orange-yellow, the
basal portions of the feathers paler, and many of them with a dusky streak or spot; sides, rump, and upper
tail-coverts black, some of the longest o f the latter margined with yellowish white. Breast dusky, with an
olivaceous tinge, and the feathers obscurely margined with olive-yellow; edge of wing, wing-lining, and
axillaries silky yellow to yellowish white. Abdomen dull brown, the feathers broadly margined with brownish
white; flanks, vent, and lower tail-coverts blackish brown, the feathers conspicuously margined with dull
somewhat yellowish white ; the third quill is the longest, the second a hair’s breadth at most, and the first
and fourth less than 0 1 inch shorter than the third ; the tarsus is between 0-5 and 0-6 inch in length, and
is feathered in fro n t for its upper three fifths (Hume'); eye small, the iris dark brown, the naked space round
the eye a very pale green; bill yellow, somewhat dusky towards the tip ; at the base of both the upper and
lower mandible as well as on the chin there are black bristles ; but none exist above the nostrils, which are
large, triangular, and swollen ; feet pale greenish horny. Total length a little above 6 inches, wing 4, bill
at front 0*31, from gape half an inch QStoliczka) .”
For the opportunity o f figuring this species I am indebted to Major John Biddulph, who kindly lent me a
specimen which was given to him by the late Mr. Mandelli from Native Sikkim. [R. B. S . |