BIRDS OF CUBA lOj 



They command a high price, and fare only moderately well in captivity. 

 The song is never the same when it comes from a cage. The nest and eggs 

 are unknown. 



Contrary to Todd's conclusions, the Isle of Pines Solitaire, M. e. retrusus 

 Bangs and Zappey, an excessively rare bird, is well worthy of recognition. 

 Its slightly less olivaceous upper parts might not be noticed on a superficial 

 inspection, but the pale ear-coverts wholly lack the tawny or buff suffusion 

 conspicuous in true elizabeth, while the very pale and much less noticeable 

 streak before the eye, so different from the richly colored stripe in the 

 Cuban bird, serves also to separate the birds at once. Even were these 

 color characters wholly lacking, the markedly different form of the bill 

 suggests to me the, certainly not fantastic, conclusion that we may be 

 dealing with full species and not races. 



In life the Solitaire looks surprisingly like a very fluffy, olivaceous, 

 short-billed Catbird. It is, however, most lethargic in its movements. 



190. Sialia sialis sialis (Linne). 

 Bluebird. 



Gundlach killed and mounted one Bluebird in April, i860. This 

 appears to have been the only record, until on February 24, 1917, W. DeWitt 

 Miller and Ludlow Griscom saw about seven individuals, including adult 

 males, in a suburb of Havana (Auk, vol. 37, p. 140, 1920). 



191. Mimocichla rubripes rubripes (Temminck). 

 ZoRZAL Real. 



The Red-legged Blue Thrush is a common bird. It is seen everywhere 

 in central and western Cuba, hopping about or scratching diligently in 

 the dry leaves of garden thickets and wilder coppices. It may be found 

 also in the woods, but it prefers a lower and more tangled growth and 

 sunshine more easily accessible. Its song is disappointing, less varied and 

 far less musical than that of most Thrushes. A long, sharp screech is often 



