Sometimes we go out in the mountains with our host hunting for game, or for mountain cabbage for our dinner. Perhaps others would like to know what this mountain cabbage is, and we will tell them. It is the bud of a palm tree, a part of the trunk of which, when young, is edible. When cooked, it looks like very white cabbage; but the flavor is finer and more delicate. It is sometimes eaten raw, as a salad.
The meat for our dinner consists of fish, and the flesh of the armadillo, the agouti and the iguana.
These animals are queer looking creatures. As we wish to see them in their haunts in the woods and fields, we will accompany our host on some long walks and drives, in order to find out more about them.
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ANIMAL LIFE.
When Columbus visited the West Indies, he was delighted by the beauty in and about them. "I know not," he said, "where first to go; nor are my eyes ever weary with gazing on the wonderful verdure. The singing of the birds is such as to make one wish never to depart."
The wonderful beauty of the country of which he spoke is unchanged; but we listen and look in vain for the singing birds. The hunter's gun has caused the disappearance of large numbers of the birds. Those remaining are found only in the forests.
Columbus spoke also of the flocks of parrots "whose bright wings obscured the sun"; but we seldom see the brilliant plumage of these birds on our excursions.
BIRDS.
There are said to be about one hundred and fifty kinds of birds on the island of Puerto Rico. Among these are the mocking bird, the wild canary, the sugar bird, the thrush, the humming bird, the owl, the hawk, the dove, the cuckoo, the oriole, the nightingale, and the Guinea bird. During the migrating season, many other birds fly over from other islands.