July, 1916 
BREEDING OF TIARIS CANO R A 
151 
ness by leaving it behind. To the above I sometimes added a folding butterfly 
net, for it is well to take what comes along in out of the way places. Butter- 
flies were individually common but I found no great variety. I suppose the 
season was too dry and the locality over-exposed to the strong trade wind. 
In this season and locality the heat is greatly tempered by the trade wind 
by day, and at night one needs a blanket, though it is very different in humid 
places away from the coast. In Cuba there are no poisonous snakes (though I 
have seen some good big ones) ; but insect pests are at times somewhat too 
varied and abundant. In short there are minor drawbacks — and one should 
take reasonable precautions against illness ; but in spite of all these the col- 
lector who longs for new fields and change of environment will find pleasure 
in both in the sunny island off our southern shores. 
U. S. S. Maine, Neiv York, February 4, 1916. 
MEETING SPRING HALF WAY 
By FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY 
'I 
T EXARKANA”, the porter announced to a curtained aisle on that April 
morning. Texarkana ! May all men know by these presents just where 
they stand. We raised the shades to find that in the night winter had 
been left behind, spring had come in Texas, spring with its birds and flowers 
and green things growing. “The trees are all green!” a boyish northern voice 
exclaimed with fervor born of snowbanks passed in the Alleghanies. And so 
they were, all green, not with the dark heavy green of summer ’s fulfillment but 
with the delicate green of the first blush of spring promise, at whose delicacy 
you fairly hold your breath ; a green that is almost white with the young hick- 
ory leaves, a tender pink with the oaks, making the woodland pools reflect a 
veritable fairyland forest. Blooming apple and peach trees gathered butter- 
flies, leaf-crowned oak tassels swayed in the wind, and as the train passed 
through a stand of pine we breathed the velvety air of sulphuring pineries— 
nature was full of rich promise. All the warmth of the woods centered in the 
red bud, all the light of the woods focused in the snowy thorn and the dazzling 
white sprays of the dogwood. The ground flowers were blooming also — exqui- 
site spring beauties, Baptisia, mandrake, and deep magenta phlox in luxuriant 
bunches. 
Through the open windows came the spring songs of Tomtits, Cardinals, 
and Mockingbirds, and as if to furnish appropriate setting, there passed in 
rapid succession cotton fields with last year’s bolls hanging, darky shanties 
flanked by outside chimneys, groups of pickaninnies, colored women in sun- 
bonnets driving mule plows, and oak woods in which small brown pigs rooted 
for acorns. The handsome red horse-chestnut blooming in the woods recalled 
Audubon’s famous painting of the Carolina Wren. At a wayside station the 
squawk of a Bluejay came in through the window, while from a passing swamp 
came the call of the Maryland Yellow-throat, not to be heard in Washington 
for fully two weeks. The first palmettos and bunches of cactus were followed 
near the Trinity River by the first gray moss, in which appropriately enough 
Parula Warblers were singing, also two weeks ahead of Washington. The 
