Lo designa como: “The Paroquet is called in western Cuba Perico, an abbreviation for Periquito, and in Oriente Catey. It once was abundant and widespread. Today it is disappearing fast. Dr. Henry Bryant made a series of skins at Remedios in 1864. Today it is probable that the small bands which I saw in the Cienaga in 1915 are almost the only ones west of Camaguey. The same year I found it still abundant in the forests near the south coast, not many miles west and northwest of Jucaro. These forests are probably all now felled. In 1917 I saw a small band near the Hanabanilla Falls in the mountains south of Cumanayagua, and there are still a few in the mountains near Trinidad. Bands are still to be met with in the Guantanamo Basin, but their numbers are everywhere diminishing. The Paroquets cannot adapt themselves to changed conditions, they are essentially birds of the virgin forest. They are stupid to a degree, and return again and again to the calls of a wounded bird. Although they easily can become inconspicuous in dense foliage by simply remaining motionless, they seldom do so for long. Overcome by curiosity, even soon after being frightened, they recommence to clamber about, stretching out their necks, and soon are to be heard chattering and squawking in a perfectly indifferent manner. Many are caught for pets; and the higher price which they are now beginning to fetch, makes the pillaging of the remaining nests all the more worth while. They nest like the Parrots in hollow trees, frequently in palms, old woodpecker borings being favored sites, the nests of the Green Woodpecker, especially, which often are drilled in the great bulky white-ant nests, seen high in so many trees.
“This will be one of the next birds to become completely extinct in Cuba, as it already is in the Isle of Pines where forty years ago it was to be found in great flocks. The Museum of Comparative Zoology now has an adequate representation of a species soon to be a zoological rarity.” |
