and neck and head,
to the length of three inches or more, are completely plucked of all
feathers, and daily rubbed with _aguadiente_ (island rum), until they
become so calloused that they are insensible to any ordinary wound which
its antagonist might inflict. Brief encounters are encouraged among them
while they are young, under proper restrictions, and no fear is had of
their injuring themselves, until they are old enough to have the _steel
gaffs_ affixed upon those which nature has given them. Then, like armed
men, with swords and daggers, they attack each other, and the blood will
flow at every stroke, the conflict being in no degree impeded, nor the
birds affrighted, by the noisy cries, jeers, and loud challenges of the
excited horde of gamblers who throng all sides of the cock-pit.[30]

Cuba has been justly styled the garden of the world, perpetual summer
smiling upon its favored shores, and its natural wealth almost baffling
the capacity of estimation. The waters which surround it, as we have
already intimated, abound with a variety of fishes, whose bright colors,
emulating the tints of precious stones and the prismatic hues of the
rainbow, astonish the eye of the stranger. Stately trees of various
species, the most conspicuous being the royal palm, rear their luxuriant
foliage against the azure heavens, along the sheltered bays, by the
way-side, on the swells of the haciendas, delighting the eye of the
traveller, and diversifying the ever-charming face of the tropical
landscape. Through the woods and groves flit a variety of birds, whose
dazzling colors defy the palette of the artist. Here the loquacious
parrot utters his harsh natural note; there the red flamingo stands
patiently by the shore of the lagoon, watching in the waters, dyed by
the reflection of his plumage, for his unconscious prey. It would
require a volume to describe the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdom
of Cuba. Among the most familiar birds, and those the names of which
even the casual observer is apt to learn, are the Cuba robin, the
blue-bird, the cat-bird, the Spanish woodpecker, the gaudy-plumed
parrot, the pedoreva, with its red throat and breast and its pea-green
head and body. There is also a great variety of wild pigeons, blue, gray
and white; the English ladybird, as it is called, with a blue head and
scarlet breast, and green and white back; the indigo-bird, the
golden-winged woodpecker, the ibis, the flamingo, and many smaller
sp