BIRDS OF CUBA I5 



menace the corpulent explorer. The diente perro supports a surprising 

 vegetation, considering its unpromising appearance, for it holds humus 

 in its myriad shallow depressions and the roots of larger trees usually find 

 little tunnels through which to extend. The seboruco formation on the 

 aeolian limestone of the coast is likewise cut into diente perro. 



The Sierra de Anafe may be reached by trolley, and ascended from 

 Caimito del Guayabal or Guanajay. The road passes through typical 

 areas of rich cane land formed from the products of limestone erosion, 

 with soil often stained a rich red or a deep black. Here cultivation is 

 everywhere and the forest gone; a few ceibas are left with useful groves 

 of royal palms and clumps of planted fruit trees, star apples, sops and 

 mangos. The plains afford a rich and splendid panorama from the ridge. 



West of Havana, a few hours by rail brings one to the Sierra de los 

 Organos, or farther still after ten or twelve hours of leisurely travel one 

 comes to railhead at Guane whence the Sierra de Guaniguanico can be 

 reached by cart or horseback. Indeed now Ford motor cars ply from 

 Pinar del Rio City to the valleys of Vinales and Luis Lazo, so that typical 

 high limestone ranges can be easily reached by the aggressive visitor. On 

 these higher ridges the slender palma de la sierra raises its feathery crown on 

 a stem as slender and true as the fairest wine-glass. The green-barked, 

 bottle-trunked ceibon sticks from the cliffs, with a shabby crop of branches 

 and with the trunk always looking as if it were moulded in green soap. 

 Up in these hills there is no high forest, but a vegetation as bizarre, as 

 fantastic, and as wholly satisfying to one who seeks a novel scene, as far 

 vaster altitudes in Mexico or Costa Rica often fail to give. In the Organ 

 Mountains are the hot springs of San Diego, and here an ancient inn offers 

 reasonable cleanliness and memorable food and drink. At all these places, 

 in March and April, the Solitaire may usually be heard, and the resident 

 Warblers, Vireos, Flycatchers and Icterids abound, with some of the rarer 

 forms as well. 



Eastward from Havana, within the Province, and southward toward 

 Batabano there are many little limestone hills, and near Matanzas the 

 famous Pan, visible far at sea, is a prominent mark. In Santa Clara there 

 is a great massif, not a range, of limestone hills rising to about three 

 thousand feet in El Potrerillo near Trinidad, and extending to near 

 Cumanayagua and Manicaragua. In the Province of Camaguey there are 

 flat limestone plains, as in the other Provinces too, and only one small sierra, 

 de Cubitas, north of the City. The easternmost Province is almost wholly 

 hills, and these are mostly limestone, at least on the upper slopes. 



