ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
195 
although I couldn’t overlook my middle initial several features that make the Phillipps’ book a 
appearing as “B” instead of “E” and the wonderful introduction to the birds of Borneo. But 
surname of my friend Courtenay Rooks being experienced birders and ornithologists need not 
spelled as “Rookes” on page 61. I was also fear that the Phillipps’ book is an irritatingly 
surprised that the middle initial(s) of authors was incomplete guide for novices. On the contrary, it 
left out of the Literature Cited section, which has a complete set of outstanding plates of the 664 
hopefully won’t be repeated by researchers who Bornean species, and it also has range maps for all 
use the book as a source of references. non-migratory (and most migratory) birds on the 
Although Barbados is unlikely to ever become island. And this is just the beginning, 
a prime destination for birders or ornithologists The Phillipps’ book is not really a field guide, it 
who are more interested in hotspots of endemic is a guide to the natural history of birds of Borneo 
species, The Birds of Barbados is an essential that also happens to be handy tor identifying 
resource for anybody who is seriously interested species. There is another newly minted book, 
in birds of the eastern Caribbean. Birders who Myers (2009), that is an excellent traditional field 
relish searching for and finding vagrants will be guide to Bornean birds. It contains all the 
especially interested in the book because of its information expected in a modem field guide 
wealth of detail on the occurrence of vagrant for identifying species (Sheldon 2010). The two 
species, especially trans-Atlantic Palearctic va- books complement one another. The Phillipps do 
grants, many of which have occurred nowhere not bother with bird descriptions; instead, they 
else in the Western Hemisphere. Field biologists emphasize general information on bird biology, 
and amateur naturalists interested in other aspects habitat characteristics, and ornithological anthro- 
of natural history in the eastern Caribbean will pology. This information makes the book much 
also find the book useful for its detailed more interesting to read than a field guide. Lots of 
descriptions of the natural history of Barba- information is provided for each species on 
dos.—FLOYD E. HAYES, Department of Bio- occurrence, behavior, song, and nesting, but much 
logy, Pacific Union College, l Angwin Ave- of the really good stuff appears outside the species 
nue, Angwin, CA 94508, USA; e-mail: fhayes@ accounts. For example, each group of birds is 
puc.edu introduced with an extensive paragraph that often 
features unexpected insights, e.g., tailorbirds 
('Orthotomus) secure their sewn nests with “... 
PHILLIPPS’ FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS spider silk teased out to make a knot” (page 238); 
OF BORNEO. By Quentin Phillipps, illustrated ioras ( Aegithina ) are “...frequent unknowing 
by Karen Phillipps. Beaufoy Books, Oxford, hosts to Cacomantis cuckoos” (page 218); Green 
England. 2009: 369 pages, 141 color plates, 644 Broadbills ( Calyptomena viridis) show signs of 
range maps, and 7 regional maps. ISBN: 978-1- polygyny and maybe even lekking (page 212); 
906780-10-4. $25.00 (paper).—This is the book I nesting barbets make numerous starter holes, 
wish I had when I first visited Sabah, north possibly “...to deceive snakes which systemati- 
Bomeo. Upon arrival, 1 took a bus from the cally investigate such holes” (page 200). In 
capitol, Kota Kinabalu, to Tanjung Aru, a nearby addition to these taxic introductions, numerous 
coastal site with a small park featuring casuarinas, yellow-highlighted paragraphs are interspersed 
palms, pandans, and garden plants. The park was around the book. These convey snippets of natural 
full of pigeons, sunbirds, tailorbirds, ioras, trillers, history that display the Phillipps remarkable 
woodswallows, munias, babblers, and bulbuls, knowledge of Bornean botany, history, and 
and I had no clue how to identify any of them. anthropology. One of these paragraphs describes 
With the Phillipps’ book, I could have turned red bean creepers ( Caesalpinias ) as a strong 
three pages and seen most of the pertinent species attractant for bulbuls, leafbirds, flowerpeckers, 
illustrated on one lively plate. The same is true for and sunbirds. Another relates that spiderhunters 
visits to the beach, rice padi, river, or the summit ( Arachnothera ) are divided into two ecological 
of Mt. Kinabalu, Southeast Asia’s highest moun- groups, one that feeds in the canopy and the other 
tain; summary plates are provided by the Phillipps that “trap-lines” bananas and gingers. This 
for each of these habitats, as well as lowland and explains why Little Spiderhunters (A. longirostra) 
montane forest. These plates and a 10-page guide zoom through the understory and like traplining 
to the island’s natural history sites are two of hermit hummingbirds in the Neotropics (Gill 
