BIRD LIFE IN THE UEUBAMBA VALLEY OF PERU. 25 



apples, bananas, and a few otlier tropical fruits are grown by tlie Mestizo family which 

 make this place their home. At this point the valley of the San Miguel is wide, level, 

 and densely forested. 



The climate has the delightful balmy qualities of that of San Miguel Bridge and 

 Huadquina, combined with a somewhat greater degree of heat and much more 

 humidity. On bright days the weather is really hot but the sky as a rule is overcast 

 part of each day. Dming oiu: \asit in October, rain fell almost every night for a few 

 hours, usually in the form of a thunder shower. 



The tree growth fills the whole valley from the floor to the summits of the confining 

 ridges. The forest is of a mixed character, the number of tree species being large, but 

 the different species are everywhere scattered so universally that there is really no 

 marked uniformity in the general appearance of the woodland. I recognized in this 

 forest several species of trumpet trees, figs, tree ferns, small palms, cedros, etc. 

 Traveling, as a rule, was not difficult through the forest, except near streams where the 

 trees were boimd together by giant \dnes and creepers. 



The chief avenue of exploration in this region, however, was the road cut by the 

 rubber gatherers for the transport of the rubber from YuAdni to Lucma, and then to 

 Cuzco. This road was cut some 20 yards in width through the forest and followed 

 the level floor of- the valley wherever practical. Travel along this wide rock-free 

 thoroughfare was a never-ending source of delight after the months of hardships and 

 conflict with the rock-strewn trails of the higher Andes. 



Heller Expedition, September 29-October 6, 1915; 33 specimens 

 of 31 species. 



Yuvini, near Rio Cosireni (altitude 3,000 feet, hmnid Tropical 

 Zone). — The Rio Cosireni enters the Urubamba from the southwest 

 some 65 miles in an air-line north by west from Santa Ana. This 

 was one of Heller's two stations in the humid Tropical Zone. Speci- 

 mens from it are listed under "Rio Cosireni." Heller \\Tites: 



Joiu-neying from the village of Lucma northward over the high ridges wliich bound 

 the Vilcabamba Valley, we drop down at the end of a day's travel into the watershed 

 of the Cosireni River. FoIlo\ving down one of the head streams, the San Miguel, we 

 come to its junction with the Pampaconas River, from wliich point the Cosireni proper 

 has its origin through the united waters of these two large affluents. Some 6 leagues 

 beyond, farther down the Cosireni, we come to the rubber station of Yu\'ini, estab- 

 lished and managed by a Dane, Alvin Berg. The thatched huts of the station stand 

 on a plateau a few hundred feet above the river, and well back from its margin, for 

 the valley here has a width of a league or more. Flowing past the station and sup- 

 pljdng it with water, is a small stream, the Yuvini, which meanders on to its union 

 with the Cosireni 2 miles beyond. 



The geographical position of Yuvini is 10 leagues north of Lucma, or more correctly 

 west of north of that place, but by the road it is some 20 leagues, or 3 days' travel 

 by pack train. Yuvini has an altitude of 3,000 feet. At this elevation, the climate 

 Is tropical and humid, but the heat here has seldom the oppressive quality which is 

 encountered 1,500 feet lower down the valley. 



During our 3 weeks' sojourn here in August and early September, part of each day 

 was overcast by rain squalls and thunder showers of short duration. The air at mid- 

 day was heavy with moisture, and rain fell at frequent short intervals interspersed by 

 bright intense sunshine. Berg, who had been a resident for 15 years, informed me 

 that this was the usual sort of weather, and that even during the height of the rainy 

 season, some months later, there was seldom a day without some simshine. 



When we arrived in mid-August, the river wag clear and low but frequently it 

 became a dark brown flood, and rose rapidly in volume owing to heavy rains in its 

 upper watershed. The suddenness of the rise of such floods and their short duration 



