BIRDS OF CUBA 5' 



Sparrow Hawks are found everywhere over the Island, and they 

 thrive in cleared and cultivated areas as well as in the wilder regions. 



68. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis (Gmelin). 

 Osprey; Fish Hawk; Guincho. 



Fish Hawks, called Guincho by the Creoles, arrive in September in 

 Cuba, and usually remain but a short time. A few stay through the winter, 

 and a few undoubtedly breed. Gundlach saw one in summer near Cardenas, 

 and Gosse reports that there are occasional nests found in Jamaica. I never 

 have seen many Guinchos about either the coasts or the inland waters. 

 The lighthouse keeper at Cabo Cruz told me that a pair nested near there 

 annually, and I saw two Fish Hawks near the light in April, 1914. I have 

 seen them along the Rio Cauto and about Cienfuegos Bay, and during 

 the spring of 191 5 Brooks and I collected a pair, evidently mated, at the 

 Ensenada de Cochinos. We saved only one, however. Its fellow fell victim 

 to the vicissitudes of Latin-American collecting. We were asleep in the 

 back room of a tiny and very dingy country store; our day's booty was 

 hung from the clothes-line outdoors, as we had come in late and tired 

 and the night was cool. About midnight a strolling party of revolutionists 

 came in to help themselves from the store, — and this they did with a will, — 

 and then one spied our clothes-line. In a moment he had it cut down, the 

 birds shaken off to the waiting pigs, and, as we were inside conversing 

 discretely with the leader of the crew, we knew nothing of our sad loss until 

 the pack had left. This, the revolution of the spring of 1917, brought us 

 various woes, and the government mobilizados (volunteers) and the revolu- 

 tionary ahados (patriots!) were about equally troublesome to the itinerant 

 naturalist. 



69. Colinus cubanensis (Gould). 

 Cuban Bob-white; Codorniz. 



The typical Cuban Quail, a very distinct species, is today hard to 

 find, except in the Isle of Pines and in remote localities. Introductions 

 from Florida and Texas for re-stocking purposes, have sadly mixed the 

 blood of the Quail about Havana and in the accessible central regions of the 



