56 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



much the same habit, and as these cocoons do not 

 contain any of the urticating hairs which render the 

 cocoons of some moths most unpleasant, if not 

 dangerous, to handle, they might doubtless prove 

 extremely suitable for nest-building. 



To Mr. Ridley we are also indebted for an interest- 

 ing observation on the habits of the Racket-Tailed 

 Drongo, Dissemurus platyurus. 1 This bird has often 

 been seen in some numbers accompanying a troop 

 of the common Macaque, Macacus cynoinolgus, as it 

 wends its way through the tree-tops in the jungle. 

 So familiar is the sight to Malays that they have 

 nicknamed the bird "the slave of the K'ra." The 

 reason of the habit is this : the monkeys as they move 

 through the trees disturb all sorts of insects, such as 

 grasshoppers, mantises, and moths, and the Drongos 

 snap them up as they fly into the air away from the 

 monkeys. It is therefore the monkeys which serve 

 the Drongos by flushing the insects, and it is not the 

 Drongos who slave for the monkeys. 2 The Drongo 

 is mimicked by a cuckoo, Surniculus lugubris, which 

 deposits its egg in the nest of its model. It need 

 not be supposed that the sole object of this mimicry 

 is to enable the cuckoo to approach unnoticed the 

 nest of the Drongo ; it is far more probable that the 



1 Journ. Roy. As. Soc. S. Br., No. 35 (IQOI), p, 105. 



2 The Malay is a good observer of Nature, but he generally comes 

 to grief when attempting to give reasons for the phenomena which 

 he has witnessed. The relations existing between the Drongos and 

 monkeys is a case in point ; another may be quoted here. The 

 habit which certain fossorial wasps exhibit of storing their nests 

 with caterpillars is well known to the Malay, but he accounts for it 

 by naively supposing that the wasps, being childless, steal and 

 adopt the children of more fortunate insects. 



