Todd: The Birds of the Isle of Pines. 151 



such as the Cuban Quail, Cuban Oriole, Cuban Mourning Dove, Cuban 

 Ground Dove, and three species of flycatchers — the Cuban Petchary, 

 Gray Kingbird, and La Sagra Flycatcher — are also more or less com- 

 mon here, as well as in the thickets on the mountain side. In the more 

 open situations, and along the edges of the scrubby growth, are 

 found the Cuban Meadowlark and Yellow-faced Grassquit. 



The rivers of the northern island diverge in every direction from the 

 central plain, from which to the seacoast there is a fall of about two 

 hundred feet. The Rio de las Nuevas, or New River, is the largest 

 of these streams, and drains an extensive area in the northwestern part. 

 All the rivers are very low in the dry season, some of them, indeed, 

 being reduced to a mere succession of pools, the channels then being 

 called " arroyos." " There appears to have been in recent times an 

 elevation of the island sufficient to have enabled the streams to cut 

 down steep channels, at least in the lower part of their courses, so that 

 subsequent depression to the present level has resulted in submerging 

 the lower courses of the rivers, thus making them subject to tide-water 

 for often eight or nine miles from the mouth. The forests of the man- 

 grove formation have at the same time advanced upon the lower parts 

 of the depressed plain " (Jennings, American Fern Journal, I, 191 1, 

 131). This mangrove-swamp, which is so characteristic a feature of 

 numerous other islands and coasts about the Gulf of Mexico, forms a 

 fringe around the greater part of the Isle of Pines (PI. XXIV, fig. 2), 

 and extends inland along the river-courses for several miles, or until 

 the water becomes fresh. Two species are represented, Rhizophora 

 mangle, the true mangrove, and Avicennia nitida, the white mangrove, 

 growing together in a dense and tangled mass, extending well out into 

 the water. There is a chain of islands lying off to the northwest from 

 Punta del Potrero on the east coast which are composed entirely of 

 this mangrove growth, while the islands in Siguanea Bay are also of 

 the same formation. The Cuban Yellow Warbler is entirely confined 

 to the mangroves, and they are the favorite haunts of the Isle of 

 Pines Clapper Rail, and several species of herons and other water- 

 birds. 



Above tidewater the river-bank fringe of mangroves gives way as 

 the land rises to a jungle-like growth with considerable low vegetation 

 and many vines. The trees are mainly evergreen species, among which 

 are Anona squamosa, HirteUa mollicoma, Morinda Roioc, Eugenia 

 punicifolia, etc. This same jungle, with modifications, extends also 



