BIRDS OF CUBA 5 



fastnesses of the Sierra Maestra, the Zapata Swamp, or in western Pinar 

 del Rio, the Cuban peasantry live a life as simple and unvexed by modern 

 change as may be found in those more old-time sisters of Cuba, the 

 Republics of Central America. 



The felling of the lowland forest has, of course, been going on since 

 early Colonial times, but the process has been constantly accelerated since 

 Cuba became independent. A steady influx of American capital has meant 

 a constant increase in the number of sugar mills and these have demanded 

 more cleared land on which cane might be grown. During the War the 

 price of sugar rose to a point which led to the clearing of enormous areas 

 of forest land, so much in fact that now very little lowland monte alto 

 (tall woods) remains. There are still great areas of the granitic or serpentine 

 savanna lands which are unfit for agriculture, and these regions bear a 

 characteristic vegetation of the jata and cana palms and support only a 

 small though highly characteristic bird population. The Cuban forest 

 was never the luxuriant foresta real of Central or South America, but it 

 originally covered all the vast areas of rich calcareous soil, and even where 

 the rainfall was somewhat scanty there was a heavy and varied sylvan 

 growth. There is fine forest still on the higher mountain ranges of the 

 Province of Oriente; and as these are steep and as yet inaccessible, they 

 will for some time to come afford a refuge for many species. The sparse 

 and scattered growths of pine have been badly damaged by fires which 

 have spread from pasture lands, burned regularly to provide fresh young 

 grass for grazing stock. 



These few introductory remarks require no further expansion to make 

 it evident that vast changes have taken place in Cuba in those very parts 

 of the Island where the richest and most varied fauna was to be found. 

 The birds — there were few mammals — have suffered more than other 

 groups; and island species, as is well known, are often prone to dwindle when 

 changed environment comes to pass. The changes have come, the birds 

 are going, and before many years ornithological conditions in Cuba will 

 be comparable to those of Hawaii, though perhaps on a less wholesale 

 scale. Still some forms today are truly rarae aves, and in a few more decades 

 they will be found only in the larger museums. It is now nearly thirty 

 years since Gundlach published his classic 'Ornitologia Cubana,' and it is 

 time that another record should be made of man's stewardship over the 

 Cuban birds. The story is tragic but wholly inevitable, and as there is 

 no organized support for such measures as the establishment of bird 

 sanctuaries, no improvement is to be expected, only the reverse. 



