88 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORMTIIOLOGICAL CLUB 



154. Tyto perlata furcata (Tcmminck). 

 Cuban Barn Owl; Lechuza. 



This is a very polyglot amongst Owls. There is rarely a farmyard 

 which has not near by its great umbrageous ceiba tree. Here the Lechuzas 

 come by night from far and wide to hiss and creak and scold. They scour 

 the bateys, as farmyards are called in Cuba, for rats and mice, and fly low 

 over the cane fields on the same quest. They kill some poultry and eat 

 small birds, but on the whole they are really beneficial to man. They are 

 cursed whenever seen, ^ Sola vayas, mal acompanada,^ and Gundlach even 

 declares that they are accused of drinking holy oil from the sanctuary 

 lamps of the churches. I have heard them declared to foretell death, but 

 the belief in their thirst for oil seems to have died out. They are commonly 

 found by day about limestone cliffs where the trees give deep shade, in 

 open caves, in belfries and deserted houses, and not rarely under the shady 

 crown of leaves of some high palm. Their eggs are laid on a bare shelf, or 

 in a ruined tower, or hollow palm trunk, early, before the New Year. 



155. Chordeiles minor gundlachii Lawrence. 



QUEREQUETE. 



Abounds over the open savannas and cane fields of Cuba from some- 

 times late February, but more often middle March or April, until the 

 last of August, when it disappears. The winter range is still unknown. 

 It rests on the burning ground in the sun and has about the habits of our 

 Nighthawk. It flies early, often in throngs on cloudy days or after the 

 heavy afternoon showers; at other times it appears just before dark. Its 

 call has given rise to the excellently imitative name of Querequete. In the 

 Isle of Pines and the regions about Guane and Madruga, and in other 

 localities where there are great semi-arid burning savannas, the Nighthawks 

 swarm, as they do also along the railway lines which offer cinder resting 

 places and where there are not too frequent trains. 



It is similar in appearance to our Nighthawk but smaller. 



