5 



party at the side of the steps of the present Zoology 

 building* 



After this short visit to the university, we started 

 out into the country to go to Santiago de las Vegas, 

 where the Estaoion Experimental Agronomica de Cuba is 

 located* The station building was originally a Spanish 

 military barracks and after the war it was reroofed and 

 refloored and turned over to the Department of Agricul- 

 ture* It is a huge square building containing or sur- 

 rounding a large square patio which is used for an 

 arboretum of palm species* Other species of palms are 

 found outside of the building and the avenue of Royal 

 Palms which leads from the main road to the entrance 

 of the station is excellent. 



Within the building the station staff have very 

 spacious quarters, I would guess close to 600 sq. ft* 

 per person. The collection is housed in schmitt boxes 

 stored in Brock cases. I went over the material in 

 Scarabaeidae, Tenebrionidae and Coccinellidae* Made 

 a few identifications of species that I was sure of 

 and pinned out a few things to be sent to me in Wash- 

 ington when I get back* 



Scaramuzza took me outside so that I could see the 

 rearing cages where the station work on pests is mostly 

 carried on* Sugar, pineapples and bananas seem to be 

 the most important crops though I think coconuts rate 

 high. In one small cage Scara had a pet mongoose that 

 was fed on small lizards (of which there is no scarcity 

 in Cuba)* A mongoose looks like and is about the same 

 size as a weasel, to which it is remotely related. 

 The animal was brought into the West Indies to control 

 the rats in the cane fields and coconut walks. There 

 are still rats on the islands where the mongoose has 

 been introduced but the native ground fauna, composed 

 of species less shrewd than rats, has suffered severely. 

 It is only a question of a few years before some of 

 the species of lizards and birds are exterminated. 



On the way back we ran into a sudden shower that 

 caused the pavements to become very slippery. Our 

 driver took us through very carefully but we did see 

 an Agriculture Department station wagon crashed in the 

 ditch. All occupants had been taken to the hospital. 

 We drove straight to the Secretariat but could get no 

 news as to the present condition of the victims. From 

 the Secretariat we drove to the dock where I made my 

 good-byes to Bruner and Scaramuzza. We sailed from 

 Havana at 7 PM bound for Kingston, Jamaica. 



