CUBA AND THE SPORTSMAN. 



DEER, WILD BOAR, AND MANY SPECIES OF GAME BIRDS FOUND IN ABUNDANCE 



—WATERS TEEM WITH FISH. 



WHILE Cuba offers such a haven 

 to the invalid, it is a paradise 

 to the sportsman, wild game 

 and fish of all kinds being 

 abundant. 



Parties of gentlemen on horseback, 

 with their pack of hounds, hunt the 

 fleet-footed deer. It is a common 

 thing for a small party to kill eight or 

 ten deer in a day. 



The wild boar is plentiful, and some- 

 times, if cornered, dangerous, espe- 

 cially the old master of the herd, 

 called " un solitario," which will tear a 

 dog to pieces or make a green hunter 

 climb a tree; but a Cuban easily kills 

 him with a machete. The island boar 

 sometimes weighs 200 or 300 pounds 

 and has huge tusks, often five or six 

 inches in length. The meat of the 

 female is much relished by the natives. 

 Wild dogs and cats, wild cattle, horses, 

 and jackasses abound. But the jutia, 

 peculiar only to Cuba, which looks like 

 a cross between a squirrel with a rat's 

 tail and a rabbit, and which lives in 

 the trees and feeds on nuts and leaves, 

 is the great delight of the Cuban. 



Fowls are in great numbers. Wild 

 guinea hens and turkeys are found in 

 flocks of from 25 to lOO The whistle 

 of the quail and the flutter of the 

 perdiz, or pheasant, are heard on all 

 sides in the rural and mountain regions. 

 Ducks in abundance come over from 

 Florida in the winter and return with 

 the spring. Wild pigeons, with their 

 white tops and bodies of blue, larger 

 somewhat than the domestic bird, 

 offer, in hunting, the greatest sport to 

 gentlemen who will be restrained 

 within reason. In the early morning 

 the pigeons generally go to feed on 



the mangle berries when ripe, and 

 which grow by the sea or near some 

 swampy place. I have known a party 

 of three persons to kill 1,500 of the 

 pigeons within a few hours. Robiches, 

 tojosas, and guanaros are found in the 

 thick woods. 



Mocking- birds and blue-birds, ori- 

 oles, turpials, negritos, parrots, and a 

 thousand kinds of songsters and birds 

 of brilliant plumage flit from tree to 

 tree. 



The naturalist Poey says there are 

 641 distinct species of fish in the Cuban 

 waters. Among those that delight the 

 sportsman aie the red snapper, lista, 

 manta, gallego, cubera, surela, and gar- 

 fish. The sierra, which weighs from 

 forty to sixty pounds, is extremely 

 game, as is the ronco, so called be- 

 cause it snores when brought out of 

 the water. For heavy sport, fishing 

 for sharks, which are good for nothing, 

 or the gusa, which weighs from 400 to 

 600 pounds and is excellent eating, 

 offers abundant exercise. It is a daily 

 occurrence to see schools of fish num- 

 bering from hundreds to many thou- 

 sands, each fish weighing from one to 

 four pounds, swimming around the 

 ba)'s and harbors waiting for a bait. 

 Any American who enjoys good fish- 

 ing can find his fondest dreams more 

 than satisfied in Cuba. 



Delicious shrimps, crabs, lobsters, 

 oysters, and clams abound. The 

 lobsters have no claws and weigh from 

 two to eight pounds. They are caught 

 at night in shallow places along the 

 sandy beach, a torch, harpoon, and net 

 being the necessary outfit. Some of 

 the rivers abound in alligators, but few 

 hunt them. — Field and Stream. 



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