38 



THE OOLOGISl 



Buzzards Bay, and use the Terns' eggs 

 for eating, cracking each egg to see if it 

 is "good." 



Vowing to make such wholesale 

 slaughter public, and to call the atten- 

 tion of the proper authorities to it, 

 we turned away, sick at heart to think 

 that by the unrestrained rapacity of 

 these degraded law breakers, more 

 harm had been done to the Tern colony 

 on these islands, than could have been 

 done by a hundred legitimate collectors 

 in a dozen years. 



Before the next breeding season, the 

 writer will make strenuous efforts to 

 have those in charge of the "Thayer 

 fund for the protection of Gulls and 

 Terns" look into the matter thoroughly 

 and prosecute to the full extent of the 

 law, such degraded wretches and un- 

 feeling brutes as these same men who 

 look at nature through their pockets 

 and stomachs. 



The wardens of the A. O. U. protec- 

 tive committee are doing a noble work 

 and the League of American Sportsmen 

 is "on deck" to restrain the breakers of 

 the law regarding birds, but there re- 

 mains an opportunity right here to pro- 

 tect these beautiful birds, which other- 

 wise will soon be reduced so in numbers 

 that our waters will loose one of their 

 chief beauties and these lonely isles, 

 which have hitherto given refuge and 

 safety to thousands of pairs of birds, 

 will become a "desolate waste" indeed, 

 and "Sterna on Weepeckets" will be a 

 thing of the past. 



Let every earnest and conscientious 

 bird lover and student unite in one solid 

 front for the prosecution of these law 

 breakers, and without tiring give these 

 beautiful birds the protection and secur- 

 ity they deserve. 



Among- the Birds of Cuba. 



Guama is a mining camp of the Cuban 

 Steel Ore Company, about 40 miles 

 south-west from Santiago. The country 

 was practically virgin forest before 

 the mines were discovered and save for 

 the small clearings for the camp, mine 

 workings and railroad remains in its 

 primeval wildness. After the forest 

 denuded and scenic rilled Porto Rico, 

 one dr<iws a long breath of relief and 

 joy as he stands in the solemn depths of 

 the woods here beneath the giant trees. 



The camp is built in the valley of the 

 Guama River, a mere creek during dry 

 season, but in heavy rains rising with 

 astonishing rapidity to a mad rushing 

 torrent. About this valley hills rise 

 above hills abruptly, and the highest 

 mine is at an altitude of some twenty- 

 five thousand feet above sea level. 



As one lands at the wharf, some two 

 miles from the camp, the first birds to 

 greet him will almost invariably be the 

 omnipresent Vultures, Gathartes aura. ' 

 In Santiago these birds roost on the 

 roofs of buildings and many a time I 

 have passed them so close that a "38 

 extra long" shell of No. 10 in my col- 

 lecting tube would have brought them 

 down. 



Strolling out on any of the trails one 

 hears from every side a wierd cry vary- 

 ing somewhat, reminding one now of 

 the Hyla's note, again of a Woodpecker's 

 cry. 



Again standing quietly for some time 

 he may suddenly discover another per- 

 fectly motionless being, whose brilliant 

 coloring might have led one to suppose 

 he would be exceedingly conspicuous. 

 This is the bird whose tribe are authors 

 of the wierd cries. It is the Cuban Tro- 

 gan. He is about ten and twelve inches 

 long, brilliant metalic blue on head like 

 our Crow Blackbirds, becoming more 

 greenish on back, wings barred with 

 white, outer three pairs of tail feathers 

 tipped with same, inner three pairs like 



