58 MEMOIRS OF THE XUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



but in Cuba prefer open lowlands with fenny sinks, the edges of high woods 

 and even pasture lands. I often have seen them standing conspicuously 

 on top of some brushy thicket far from water or even from marshy ground. 

 Whereas in Florida they feed largely on Ampullarias, breaking the snails 

 open by vigorous blows of their beaks, in Cuba they seem to prefer lizards 

 and the larger insects. They are naturally stupid but soon learn to fear 

 man, and in settled localities where they are hunted more or less they 

 become very shrewd. Their flesh is excellent. The high, resonant cry, often 

 repeated, and taken up by every bird within hearing, has given rise to the 

 wonderfully apt native name, Guareao. The flight of the bird, with legs 

 trailing downward, neck outstretched and wings snapping heavily, is very 

 crane-like. The character of the flesh, rich and dark in color, the flight, 

 and the voice, suggest a relationship to the Cranes far more than to the 

 Rails. The nesting habits, however, are very different, for they build not 

 only in rushes and upon depressed grasses but in trees upon horizontal 

 limbs and in bunches of parasitic vegetation. Gundlach has found the 

 nests in every month. 



The Guareao is so conspicuous that it often is seen from the train 

 window while passing through the Province of Camaguey, which is largely 

 given up to pasture land. I found it abundant too about Aguada de 

 Pasajeros and the borders of the Zapata Swamp. In western Cuba it is 

 rare, and much of the Province of Orlente is still too much overgrown 

 with forest, since it is so hilly, to attract Limpkins, for they are wholly 

 birds of the more open lowlands. 



81. Grus mexicanus nesiotes Bangs and Zappey. 

 Cuban Sandhill Crane; Grulla. 



The Cuban Crane still exists in some numbers on the great open, 

 sterile savannas of western Pinar del Rio. There are a good many about 

 Vinales, Mendoza, Guane and the outlying bare wire-grass hills with 

 scattered pines. Elsewhere they are rare. I have seen a few in southern 

 Matanzas Province, about Alacranes and Union de Reyes, and a few north 

 of Aguada de Pasajeros, and also along the line of the old trotcha near the 

 south coast. I nev^er have seen any east of the trotcha, that wide, cleared 

 zone, with its tumble-down blockhouses, which the Spaniards established 

 from north coast to south, from Moron to Jucaro, to try to prevent 

 rebel bands from moving eastward or westward during the Wars for 

 Independence. In Cuba, as in Florida, the Cranes live in pairs or families, 



