BIRDS OF CUBA 8l 



caught after cutting down the palm. Thus it is probable that a good many 

 may have found their way to Europe as pets. The adults were killed to eat, 

 and were said to have been stupid and slow to take flight when approached. 

 Gundlach collected no specimens in the Isle of Pines, and the records 

 for that island rest upon tradition only, albeit a reasonably credible one. 



141. Aratinga euops (Wagler). 

 Cuban Paroquet; Perico; Catey. 



The Paroquet is called in western Cuba Perico, an abbreviation for 

 Periquito, and in Oriente Catey. It once was abundant and widespread. 

 Today it is disappearing fast. Dr. Henry Bryant made a series of skins 

 at Remedies in 1864. Today it is probable that the small bands which I 

 saw in the Cienaga in 191 5 are almost the only ones west of Camaguey. 

 The same year I found it still abundant in the forests near the south coast, 

 not many miles west and northwest of Jucaro. These forests are probably 

 all now felled. In 1917 I saw a small band near the Hanabanilla Falls in the 

 mountains south of Cumanayagua, and there are still a few in the mountains 

 near Trinidad. Bands are still to be met with in the Guantanamo Basin, 

 but their numbers are everywhere diminishing. The Paroquets cannot 

 adapt themselves to changed conditions, they are essentially birds of the 

 virgin forest. They are stupid to a degree, and return again and again 

 to the calls of a wounded bird. Although they easily can become incon- 

 spicuous in dense foliage by simply remaining motionless, they seldom do 

 so for long. Overcome by curiosity, even soon after being frightened, 

 they recommence to clamber about, stretching out their necks, and soon are 

 to be heard chattering and squawking in a perfectly indifferent manner. 

 Many are caught for pets; and the higher price which they are now begin- 

 ning to fetch, makes the pillaging of the remaining nests all the more worth 

 while. They nest like the Parrots in hollow trees, frequently in palms, old 

 woodpecker borings being favored sites, the nests of the Green Woodpecker, 

 especially, which often are drilled in the great bulky white-ant nests, seen 

 high in so many trees. 



This will be one of the next birds to become completely extinct in 

 Cuba, as it already is in the Isle of Pines where forty years ago it was to be 

 found in great flocks. The Museum of Comparative Zoology now has an 

 adequate representation of a species soon to be a zoological rarity. 



