6 BULLETIN 326, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The smaller shorebirds are often found in migration in low wet 

 fields, and other birds frequently venture into the borders of the crop 

 before it is cut. 



BIKDS FOUND IN COFFEE PLANTATIONS. 

 / 



The extensive forests which formerly covered Porto Rico have 

 been replaced in the interior to a great extent by coffee plantations ; 

 only small sections of second growth are left, and these diminish 

 steadily year by year. The most extensive region devoted to coffee 

 culture is in the western end of the island around Maricao and Ad- 

 juntas, but large fincas occur through the hills of the entire island 

 and in a few places on level ground near the coast. The low coffee 

 trees and attendant shade trees covering them do not seem to sup- 

 ply all the needs of the original forest-dwelling species, though 

 many have adapted themselves readily to the changed conditions. 

 Parrots, crows, and courlans have almost disappeared, and other 

 species, greatly reduced in numbers, are restricted in their range 

 to the dense forest growths remaining on inaccessible hills or on 

 land of little value. 



In the coffee plantations changing seasons offer little variation, 

 except in the flowering and the gradual maturing of the coffee berries. 

 Once, or perhaps twice, in the year the ground is cleared somewhat 

 and the trees trimmed, and later, pickers come through gathering the 

 crop; but during most of the year, except near the paths leading 

 through the fincas, there is little human interference with the wild 

 life found there. Insects, many of them injurious, are common, and 

 make many a meal for the birds which harbor in the plantations; 

 while berries, seeds, and wild fruits in their season offer a super- 

 abundant supply to the birds which prefer vegetable food. It is 

 claimed that birds do some damage to ripening coffee berries by 

 eating the sweet pulp surrounding the inner berry, but as yet this 

 charge is unsubstantiated. The damage is done apparently by rats, 

 which, being unseen, are not suspected, the birds getting the credit 

 for the misdeeds of the rodents. Many species of birds, as wood- 

 peckers, flycatchers, cuckoos, and others, are of great benefit here, 

 and only rarely can any of the forms found in the coffee district be 

 called injurious. In the absence of forests, these plantations serve as 

 centers of distribution for birds, and so aid in keeping at a maximum 

 the number of individuals in each section, for from their shelters 

 the birds spread into the more open hedgerows and scattered tree 

 growths of the surrounding country. The following list enumerates 

 the more common of the avian residents of coffee plantations, and in- 

 cludes several northern forms that winter here in numbers sufficient 

 to render them of economic importance: 



