SMI'I'HSONIAN KXPLORATIUNS, KjjS 75 



The use of autoniol)iles. small tents, cots, and alcohol cooking- stove 

 simplified our transportation, housing, and food proljlems. In Pinar 

 del Rio Province we made headquarters at Tahurete, San Diego 

 Banos, Pinar del Rio, Vinales. Banos San Mcente, and Luis Lazo, 

 from which centers we radiated in all directions. Where the auto- 

 mohile was unahle to carry us, we traveled on horsehack or on foot. 



Tn the western end of the island we have a lowland coastal ]ilain 

 fauna, consisting' of a restricted number of sjiecies of rather wide 

 distril)ution. which follow the shore lines where they occu]!y every suit- 

 able location. Then we have an equally widely distributed scattered 

 fauna of the grass lands and cultivated plains best represented in the 

 hedge rows and fence corners which are less disturbed by the machete 

 and the plow. By far the greater in number and the most interesting" is 

 the calciphil fauna which is restricted to the limestone outcrops of the 

 mountains and hills. Here one finds the Urocoptids, sometimes hun- 

 dreds in the space of a square yard, fixed by their aperture with a 

 dried mucous film to the sun-exposed, apparently barren face of the 

 limestone clift's. In the little more shaded portions of the same l)lock, 

 a number of species of Helicinids and Annulariids are sure to be 

 found, while scratching among the talus debris at the base of the clifi' 

 will yield Pleurodonte, Microceramus, Oleacina. Cepolis, Megalo- 

 mastoma, Subulina, and Geomelania. Where lirush and timber cover 

 these hills, Liguus, the large, brilliantly colored tree snail, may be seen 

 fixed to the trunks or Ijranches like some showy fiower. 



It was most interesting to observe the extreme isolation and limited 

 range of some of these forms ; for example, Choudropoma Jicndcrsom 

 Torre, the showiest of the Annulariids, is restricted to the upper 

 summit portion of the Costanera del Abra. All the specimens so far 

 collected have been a few living individuals that probabl\- had ventured 

 to climb up on some exposed ])lant or rock, from which a sudden gust 

 of wind or some other agency mav have dislodged them and started 

 them on their downward course which eventually ])laced them within 

 the reach of the collector. We secured only three living specimens, 

 but gathered a number of dead shells on the talus slope at the base of 

 the unscalable paredones. liven these dead shells are to l)e found only 

 at the Imse of the clifif, in a space about the length of a city square, 

 and this in spite of the fact that the bold face of the mountain extends 

 for several miles. 



Contrasting with this is Clioiniropoiiia sagebiciii Poey, which we 

 find on the exposed limestone bluft's ranging from Mendoza east to 

 San Diego Banos. This species and its associates tell a wonderful 



