Birds from North Borneo

Cocoa plantations.--Artificial plantings of cocoa, Theobroma cacao, formed a major habitat type at Quoin Hill, and provided a major source of food for birds. Cocoa planters have found it necessary to provide shade with trees of some other species. In some instances trees from the original primary forest were left standing to provide this shade, but more often exotic trees were planted. Most of the shade trees were of no use to birds save for providing resting places. Trema orientalis was the most important in providing food for birds. Its fruit was used more by the frugivorous species of birds than that of any other tree in the cocoa plantings. Tree Cassava, an exotic, was constantly attended by the nectariniids, or honey creepers.

Although the cocoa plantings did not provide much plant material for bird food, they did apparently nourish a horde of insects, which the birds fed upon. A Drongo-cuckoo, Surniculus lugubris, had 50 caterpillars in i