Mr. Atmore procured it at Blanco, and writes thus: “ May 26,
1864. I hare had another good opportunity of watching the habits
of I. minor. I used to wonder where they got all the bees-wax that
is usually in their gizzards, and the other day I found out. There
was a male at a bee-hive as busy as possible catching bees. After
•watching him for some time, Tom shot him, and his gizzard was
full of bees’ legs, with the wax on them. He is held in no repute
here as an Indicator; but I. major is, and he is scarce.” Mr. Atmore
has mistaken the pollen of the bee for wax. The bird’s habit of
capturing bees like a fly-catcher is interesting; but his most singular
statement follows. We had asked him for information upon certain
points, and he writes: “ I can’t answer your queries yet, but I can
tell you that I. minor kills and eats small birds as savagely as
Lanius collaris ! The very first I shot was in the aet of eating a
spaiTOW that I saw him kill inflight: I suspect the others of similar
propensities.” In another letter he writes : “ Eggs white, in nests
of Denclropicus menstruus and Pogonorhynchus leucomelas.”
Mrs. Barber says that with them it lays in the nests of Barbatula
pusiUa.
Mr. T. 0. Atmore has sent it from Eland’s Post, and Captain
Shelley and Mr. Ayres have both procured it in Natal. Dr. Kirk
obtained it in the Zambesi district, and the late Mr. Andersson
writes : “ I have met with it sparingly in Damara Land throughout
the year ; and I also observed it in Great Namaqua Land. Dr.
Kirk gives the following note on the species as observed by him in
the Zambesi. “ 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. If this be responded to, as the natives do by
whistling and starting to their feet, the bird will go in a certain
direction and remain at a little distance, hopping from one tree to
another. 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 to within a few trees. I have known
this bird, if the man after taking up the direction for a little then
turns away, come back and offer to point out another nest in a
different part. But if it do 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 forests. This is natural, as the bee
is the same; the bark hive, ‘ Musinga’ as it is named, being simply
fastened up in a tree and left for the bees to come to. The object
the bird has in view is clearly the young bees. It will guide to
nests having no honey, and seems equally delighted if the comb
containing the grubs be torn out, when it is seen pecking at it.”
General colour above, yellowish-brown, the yellow brightest on
the wing-feathers; head ashy-brown; cheeks, chin, throat, breast,
and belly, cinereous; vent white; thighs faintly maculated with
brown; moustache blackish ; tail composed of twelve feathers, thus
marked : two inner pair all brown, four outer pair white, with base
and tips brown. In this species the outer pair are but very slightly
shorter than the next. Length, 5" 9'" ; wing, 3” 7///; tail, 2” 6'" ;
tarsus, 10 '6.
Pig. Temm. PL Ool. 542, fig. 2.
153. P rodotiscus reg u lu s . Brown Honey-Guide.
This peculiar little bird was discovered by the late Prof. Wahl-
berg in South-Eastern Africa, and one of the original specimens
from Port Natal is in the editor’s collection, and will shortly be
placed in the British Museum. Nothing is known of its habits, but
it may be distinguished from all the other Honey-Guides by its thin
bill and nearly uniform brown plumage.
The description here given is taken from a paper on the Indica-
toridae contributed by the editor to Mr. Dawson Rowley’s “ Ornithological
Miscellany.”
Adult female.—General colour earthy-brown, including the sides
of the face and neck; a tuft of white feathers on each side of the
lower back; underneath rather more ashy-brown, the centre of the
body and under tail-coverts yellowish-white, the latter with a few
hair-like shaft-streaks; under wing-coverts white, the feathers near
the edge of the wings brown; wings brown, the quills darker, the
secondaries edged with whity-brown; tail dark brown, the three
outer feathers white on the outer web extending for more than half
of the two outermost, but less extended on the third; bill and feet
blackish. Total length, 5 inches; culmen, 0'5; wing, 3'0; tail, 2'15 ;
tarsus, 0'4-5.
Pig. Sharpe in Rowley’s Orn. Misc. part iv.