THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



coverts blood red, wings with white bars. It is extremely abundant and not wild, but not 

 so easily seen as its brilliant colors might lead one to suppose. The belted king- 

 fisher winters in Cuba, which also produces an odd little relative of the kingfisher, 

 the tody, called in Spanish "podovera." The total length is only three and three- 

 quarters inches and the wide, flat bill is three-quarters of an inch long. The upper 

 parts, wings and tail are bright leaf green, chin and throat blood red, the sides 

 beautiful salmon pink, and the remaining under parts grayish white, faintly washed 

 with pink. Only six species are known and all are confined to the West Indies. 

 Like kingfishers, they excavate in banks of earth for their nests and lay white eggs. 



Five species of woodpeckers occur, including the Cuban representative of that 

 now almost extinct, grandest of American woodpeckers, the ivory-billed, also the 

 beautiful Cuban green, and the Cuban flicker. All woodpeckers are Called by the 

 natives "carpinteros" because of their method of drilling in dead wood for food and 

 nests. The nighthawk and two species of chuck-wills-widow are found, three 

 swifts and three hummers, one our own ruby-throat, another one of the smallest 

 known species. There are our common kingbird, the gray kingbird and the Cuban 

 kingbird, the latter much larger than any of the others, also Couch's kingbird and 

 several other species of flycatchers, including the acadian, crested, wood pewee and 

 phoebe, familiar friends of ours. Two native species of crow are found, one a small 

 one; the bobolink, three blackbirds, including our yellow-headed; four orioles, three 

 of which are common to the United States; a grackle related to our crowblackbirds, 

 the pine siskin and fifteen inembers of the sparrow tribe, including two species 

 of grasshopper sparrow, our chipping, savanna, and seaside sparrows, the obnoxious 

 and widespread English sparrow, the "negrito," a black sparrow with white spots 

 on the wings, the indigo bunting and three species of grassquits. Of the tanagers, 

 four species are found, three of which are birds of the United States, the blue gros- 

 beak, a martin closely related to our purple martin, and four species of swallows 

 occiir (of which three are United States birds and the fourth is a near relative of 

 our clifif swallow), also the cedar waxwing. Six species of vireos are found, four 

 common to the States, and there are thirty warblers, of which only five are not 

 found in this country. There are two gnat-catchers, one of them our blue-gray, the 

 catbird and two species of the genus mimocichla, which resemble our robin in form 

 but not in color, which is chiefly bluish gray. Cuba has two species of mockingbirds. 

 Our robin, and wood, Wilson's, olive-backed and gray-cheeked thrushes have also 

 been recorded. 



Of reptiles and batrachians there are somewhere about seventy species. The 

 boas of the genera ungalia and exicrates are some of the more important snakes. 

 Unlike Porto Rico Cuba is well supplied with snakes. On the mountain trails they 

 are frequently met with, but it is said that there are no poisonous species. Another 

 notable reptile is the large iguana, not unlike in general appearance a small alligator. 

 As in other parts of the West Indies, lizards abound in great variety. 



Of butterflies and moths there are supposed to be about one thousand species. 

 Many are very beautiful, and some species so confine themselves to the tree-tops 

 that they are very difticult to secure. Callidryas avellandra is bright yellow blotched 

 with bloody red, while papilio gundlachianus is black with green bands in the fore 

 wings and large bright red spots on the hind wings, which like other members 

 of the genus are ornamented with "tails." 



Scorpions, centipedes and tarantulas are not uncommon. While the natives 

 do not as a rule like to be poisoned by these creatures any more than we do to 

 be stung by a wasp, yet they usually seem to have no fear of any deadly effects, 

 showing the greatest amount of respect for the scorpion. All of these creatures 

 are wont to make their headquarters in the native huts which are built of banana 

 and coaconut leaves, and the writer has never heard of any serious trouble resulting 

 from contact with them. 



t (SflleDodoD cubaiias). 



Solenodon Cubanus. 

 La Compafila Kny-Scteerer. de Nueva York, ofreee de $10 a $15 por un animal muerto en alcohol, 

 f> per su esgueleto opiel. 



