THE OSPREY. 



61 



is important as holding the birth or " nacimiento ' of were particularly abundant in a near-by patch of 



the river Trinidad. Some one hundred yards from 

 my cabin this stream issued from the base of a pre- 

 cipitous cliff and like a laughing New England trout 

 brook flowed by my door. In occasional sheltered, 

 quiet pools water-cresses grew abundantly, furnish- 

 ing my scanty larder with a dish which seemed sin- 

 gularly out of place amid my tropical surroundings 

 Here were cocoa and royal palms, mangoes, guavas, 

 plantains, bananas, coffee, lime and lemon trees, 



corn. Then came the chattering notes of a King- 

 bird-like Flycatcher, the Guatibero ( Pi/angits caudi- 

 fa.uialiis), the rolling call of the Cuban Red-bellied 

 Woodpecker [Centuius siiprrci/iaris) and the poor 

 attempt of the Cuban Robin or Zorzal {Mimocichla 

 rnhripc-s ) making a chorus of which the Mourning 

 Dove's voice alone was familiar. .\t intervals one 

 heard the kr-r-r-oic of Trogons, the complaining note 

 of Anis, the rco of the diminutive Siju Owl, or the 



blooming roses and flowering trees and plants to me grating cries of a passing flock of Paroquets, 

 unknown. The bed of the \'alley was cultivated in Of these birds the Trogon was to me the rnost in- 



places by the moun- 

 taineers, its borders 

 were grown with 

 mixed woodland 

 which became scanti- 

 er as one ascended the 

 neighboring hill tops 

 where it was finally 

 replaced by a scrubby 

 palm and innumerable 

 small agaves bearing 

 candelabras of yellow 

 blossoms As the 

 scene of much activit\- 

 during the preceding 

 Cuban revolution the 

 whole region appealed 

 to one's imagination. 

 Caves were shown me 

 in which the insur- 

 gents had lived or 

 taken refuge when 

 pursued, and as I read 

 in current newspapers 

 of recent skirmishes 

 in these mountains I 

 wonder what experi- 

 ences the present war 

 has brought to m y 

 quiet valley with its 

 rough but hospitable 

 inhabitants. 



Interesting as I found my morning's outing in the could be clearly seen. 



teresting. It was the 

 first species of this 

 family that I had ever 

 seen in life and its 

 presence strangely 

 emphasized the char- 

 acter of my surround- 

 ings. The bird of 

 books and museum 

 cases, which, by asso- 

 ciation had become in 

 my mind almost em- 

 blematic of the trop- 

 ics, was calling from 

 the woods at my door. 

 Could there be better 

 evidence that I, too, 

 was in the tropics ? I 

 revelled in the sound 

 of its melancholy call, 

 as perched motionless 

 a pair of birds would 

 regularly answer each 

 other for long periods 

 of time. They were 

 exceedingly tame and 

 often permitted me to 

 approach to within a 

 few feet of them, when 

 their brilliant green 

 back, ashy breast, and 

 rich crimson abdomen 

 But it is when feeding that 

 woods about my cabin I shall not attempt to describe the Trogon is seen to best advantage. It lives largely 

 it. Rather I shall write of the more characteristic upon berries, which, doubtless aided by its serate 

 Cuban birds as they appeared to me after a month mandibles, it plucks by darting at them or, in effect, 

 and a half spent in their haunts. My cabin at San by capturing them on the wing. At the moment the 

 Juan was an ideal naturalist's home. Birds were fruit is seized the bird is nearly upright, its wings 

 abundant throughout the valley but nowhere were flutter, its tail is widely spread, and its brilliant 

 they more numerous than within gunshot of my plumage is thus displa}ed to the utmost, 

 doorstep. Upon awakening in the morning I heard Scarcely less symbolic of tropical life than the Tro- 

 first the soft, plaintive cooing of the Mourning and gons were the Paroquets. Our own Carolina Paro- 

 Zenaida Doves, and the more vigorous notes of a quet was the only species with which I was previously 

 large wood Pigeon, known as Torcaza ( Coluiiilui lor- familiar and as a flock of the Cuban birds darted by 

 oisis ). They were followed by the singular call overhead or flew through the forest their grating call 

 notes and whistles of two species of Blackbirds {Quis- always produced an answering thrill within me. One 

 cahts gundlaclii and Philoxeua atroviolacciis'), which day a company paused to feed on the berries of a 



.\ REFUGE FOR BATS .AND BARN OWI.S A N 15 CUBAN REBEL.S 



