yjjonian Inst it 
JUL 3 i 1916 
<*' - 
.filial w 
THE-C9nD?R 
.a-aiKGjizasfL- ob 
®fclss<mi>- OP,X>JSE\OBQ6Y- 
Number 4 
July-August, 191t> 
Volume XVIII 
BREEDING OF TIARIS CANORA, AND OTHER NOTES FROM THE 
U. S. NAVAL STATION, GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA 
By DR. T. W. RICHARDS, U. S. NAVY 
WITH THREE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR 
T HE COLLECTOR who selects the southeast coast of Cuba for his first trip 
to the tropics is apt to find his early impressions somewhat disappointing. 
Steep hills rise abruptly from the water’s edge, their gray sides seamed 
and gashed by erosion. Instead of waving palms and luxuriant verdure, such 
as one pictures in imagination, we find here cacti and thorny shrubs in end- 
less variety. Upon their branches epiphytes crowd in rank profusion, while 
trailing vines bind the whole into thickets well-nigh impassable. In short, the 
terrain is in many places semi-arid and the vegetation distinctly xerophytic. 
Here and there clumps of palms struggle successfully for existence, but the 
general tone of the landscape is gray, rather than green, and closer acquaint- 
ance impresses one with the easy transition from leaves to thorns. First im- 
pressions, however, are proverbially misleading, and it is only fair to say that 
our traveller has no real cause for discouragement. In the first place he can 
probably find all the tropical luxuriance his heart desires by going a few 
miles inland, while even within the coastal region itself there is much of inter- 
est to the ornithologist. If I have somewhat emphasized the other aspects it is 
because there seems to be a rather prevalent impression that all tropical local- 
ities are much alike, whereas it is quite otherwise in fact, and a collector is apt 
to find plenty of variety without going far afield to look for it. 
Guantanamo Bay lies on the south coast of Cuba, some 65 miles from Cape 
Maysi, the eastern extremity of the island. It is a beautiful sheet of water 
about eleven miles long and perhaps six wide at the most, with a comparatively 
narrow entrance, in fact one of those “bottle-necked” affairs so common on 
the Cuban coasts. The shore-line is tortuous and irregular in the extreme, be- 
