1 6 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



The Savannas and Lomas 



The railway to Pinar del Rio passes through great rolling plains or flat 

 vales, with a poor variety of woody plants except along the cut-down river- 

 beds, but with an abundant growth of bottle palms or barrigonas. Wire 

 grass and bottle palms cover the flat savannas, and west of Pinar del Rio, 

 where the schists are lifted up into high rounded hills, there are extensive 

 open groves of pines. These reach westward through the Acostas hills 

 and afford a last refuge to the rare little Pine Crows, and still support 

 a good many Cranes as well. Bird life is sparse — the Pine Warblers, a 

 few Woodpeckers, Meadowlarks and little else. East of Havana, however, 

 for instance about Madruga, the savannas support a more varied flora. 

 Many fan palms of several species are mixed with tall palmettos, while 

 acacias and guava bushes, mostly escapes from cultivation, now occur 

 far and wide. Over such savannas Palm Swifts may always be seen. 

 Farther eastward, about Jobabo, the saos are thickly forested with tall 

 spindly palmettos and some bush (manigua), for here in Oriente the greater 

 rainfall makes even these sterile wastes somewhat more available for 

 plant growth. In the highlands of Mayari there are other high pine areas. 



The Lowland Forest 



The lowland forest in earlier times grew both on the flat limestone 

 plains and on the red-and-black soil which is calcareous detritus stained 

 with mineral salts or humus. Once widespread, now it is nearly all 

 cut off. In a few places, as on the eastern shore of the Ensenada de Cochinos, 

 the forest grows on the sparsely covered aeolian limestone rock of the coast, 

 the diente perro appearing here and there on the forest floor. One wonders 

 here how such sparse soil, howsoever rich, could have supported woods, 



