14 Jamieson and Bingham — Lake Parinacochas and the 



Pavinacochas is a contraction from the Qnichua word 

 "Parihuanakocha," which means the lake of flamingoes. The 

 Qnichna or Inca word for flamingoes ' is " Parihnana " ; 

 "Kocha" means lake. There are thousands of pink flamin- 

 goes, but we could find no evidence that they nested here. 

 "We found the lake to be the home of a great many birds, 

 which, in the order of the frequency with which we saw them, 

 are as follows : flamingoes, gulls, small divers, large black 

 ducks, sandpipers, black ibis, large teal ducks, large geese, 

 ground owls, and woodpeckers. Owing to the shallowness of 

 the lake and the fact that a sweet marsh grass is abundant in 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 2. Lake Parinacochas. Flamingoes wading in the lake. 



it, the cattle are accustomed to wade sometimes as much as 

 three quarters of a mile from shore, in order to get the particu- 

 larly succulent grasses and water weeds. We saw no fish, and 

 were told by the natives that there were no fishes in the water, 

 but there was a great deal of small animal life. Large parts of 

 the lake are covered with algse, making it very difficult to row. 

 In camps, near the banks of the lake, at night the temperature 

 went as low as 22° F. 



It will be seen at a glance, from the table, that the temper- 

 ature of the water of the lake varies from 61° to 67*5°, depend- 



