barker] A NATURE LOVER IN PORTO RICO 11 



today only in small numbers in the dense, humid forests of the 

 Loquillo Mountain Reserve. Snakes are almost as scarce as in 

 Erin, though some exist. A friend from the mountain districts 

 tells me that he has seen a large snake descend from a tree. In- 

 stead of climbing down or jumping, it coiled itself into a spring 

 and dropped from the bough. Lizards there are, everywhere, 

 abundant in numbers and species, — active, tame little creatures 

 which cock their bright eyes at one with a trusting, birdlike expres- 

 sion. 



One of the first and lasting pleasures of a nature-lover is the 

 song of little Kokee, a small frog who lives in the meadows and low 

 trees, and whose voice has given him his name. All day long he 

 sings from i he deep grass but as the shades of evening fall, all his 

 friends join him until the night air rings with the tinkle of their 

 jingling bells, for all the world like a May night up North. 



Birds seem to be scarce, — honey-creepers, kingbirds and black- 

 birds being most in abundance. Many of the northern warblers, 

 the palm, myrtle, black-and-white, water thrushes, redstart and 

 many others are said to visit the Island in winter. The redstart is 

 here called "candelita," which means a little fire. The most 

 abundant bird of all is "reinita," the honey -creeper of bananaquit. 

 She is everywhere and often flies into houses, where she helps 

 herself to sugar or anything sweet that she can poke her sharp 

 curved beak into. Her colors are green and yellow and bluish gray 

 and her size and voice are similar to the wood-warblers. There 

 are two species of owl, — the short-eared owl, a rare species, of 

 which the writer has had the good fortune recently to see a young 

 specimen, and the somwehat smaller bare-legged owl called 

 "muscaro." He is similar to our screech-owl in size and appear- 

 ance and his thin, wierd trill on a moonlight night is truly screech- 

 owlish. He often frequents the coffee plantations and because the 

 mangled remains of the juicy red coffee berries are found on the 

 ground in the morning the damage is laid to him. Doubtless 

 the real culprit is the rat, as neither stomach contents from many 

 specimens examined, nor experiments with caged birds have 

 afforded any incriminating evidence against him. It is another 

 instance where the wisdom of the Arab's proverb is seen — ''To 

 avoid suspicion, do not stoop to tie your shoelaces while passing 

 through your neighbors melon-patch." 



