The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

The abundance of food and absence of cold throughout the year, as well as the shelter given by the dense woodland and mountains, has led to their rapid increase. The game laws also protect them from destruction with the exception of a brief period during the late fall and winter.

A peculiar animal known as the Hutia, of which there are three varieties in Cuba, together with the small anteater, known as the Solenoden, represent the entire native mammalian fauna of the Island. Hutia is the name given in Cuba to three species of the Caprimys, which belong to this country. The largest of the three is distributed over the entire Island. It weighs about ten pounds and is frequently seen in the tree tops of the forest, living on leaves and tender bark. The other species are only about half the size of the former. One of these has a long rat-like tail with which it hangs to limbs of trees, as does the American opossum. The third species is confined to the Province of Oriente. Outside of Cuba only two of the Caprimys or Hutias are found, one in the Bahamas, and the other in Jamaica and Swan Island, now almost extinct. The Hutias are arboreal rodents. Those of the mountains rear their little families among the boulders of the tall sierras, where the feeble voices of the young can often be heard by one who listens carefully. Their faint cry is very suggestive of the peep of little chickens. Hutias are sometimes kept as pets in the country.

The large rodents, as a new world product, attained their maximum development a very long while ago, during the middle Tertiary period. Since that time the group has been steadily diminishing, and the extensive land areas over which they once thronged have undergone many changes. The Caprimys are a stranded remnant whose ancestral relations are difficult to trace.

The largest bird of the Island is the Cuban sandhill crane (Grus nesiotes). This rather rare representative of the feathered tribe is found occasionally on grassy plains surrounding the western end of the Organ Mountains of Pinar del Rio. They are also quite plentiful along the foothills, and on the grass covered plateaus just south of the Cubitas Mountains, in Camaguey, where they were at one time quite tame. These birds are found also in Mexico and in the United States, and when less than a year old are excellent eating. They stand about four feet in height and are only a trifle smaller than the whooping crane of the western plains of the United States.

The guinea-fowl is one of the most common birds of Cuba and was introduced by the early Spanish conquerors who brought it from the Cape Verde Islands, whence it had been carried from Africa. This bird, which has exceptional ability in taking care of itself, while found on nearly every native farm, soon became wild in Cuba, and is quite plentiful in some of the dense forests of the Island, especially in the Province of Camaguey, where it occasionally furnished food for the insurgents during the War of Independence. The wild guinea is excellent eating, resembling in size and quality the prairie chicken once so common on the western prairies of the United States.

The domestic turkey is, of course, indigenous to almost all parts of North and Central America. Of its introduction into Cuba there is practically no record. The climate of the Island is very congenial to turkeys, hence far less trouble is found in raising them than in the United States.

The Cuban “bob-white” with its cheerful note is common throughout the Island. He is slightly smaller and darker than the American quail, which some time in the remote past migrated to Cuba. The game laws of the Island protect both of these birds quite efficiently, otherwise they would long ago have been extinguished.

The ubiquitous turkey buzzard is also common in Cuba and quite as obnoxious as in the southern states of America.

The little Cuban sparrow hawk, similar to if not identical with that of the United States, is also found in the Island, as is also the king bird, which retains his pugnacious habits, not hesitating to tackle anything that flies. Many varieties of the owl are also found in Cuba, including the large handsome white owl.

The mocking bird of the South, that king of song birds, to which Linnaeus gave the name of Minus Polyglottus Orpheus, is usually in evidence with his beautiful song, if not always in sight. The sweet voiced meadow lark of the United States also is very common in Cuba.