Courtesy of the Architectural Record.

One of the largest and finest of the old Spanish cathedrals in Peru is that at Arequipa. Its construction was begun in 1625. The structure faces the Plaza de Armas, its façade measuring 450 feet. The building is supported by 70 fine columus of composite Ionic and Doric style, and has three entrances.

Chachapoyas.

building is supported by 70 large columns of composite Ionic and Doric style, lending it a massive and splendid appearance. The interior is divided into three naves, separated by superb columns that support the great arches above with harmonious effect. The main altar is of marble, and the pulpit of beautifully carved wood.

Huanuco, capital of the Department of the same name, was made an episcopal see in 1865. The once large population of the city has dwindled since the discovery of the famous copper mines at Cerro de Pasco until now there are perhaps about 8,000 left. The cathedral, which fronts the plaza, is chiefly remarkable for its solid construction, having stone arches and a high and pointed steeple. This is accounted for by the fact that severe earthquakes have never visited this immediate section.

Chachapoyas has been a bishopric since 1843. The cathedral is a simple one-story structure of brick, having two square towers to relieve the plainness of the façade.

Ayacucho, a bishopric since 1609, has a cathedral of more pretentious architecture built of volcanic rock from the Picota Mountains. Puno, raised to a bishopric in 1861, has a cathedral which is well constructed and quite ornate in architectural embellishment. The space of the façade between the two towers is highly ornamented and has a number of fine statues of saints placed in open niches as an unusual feature.

Trujillo, an episcopal see since 1577, has a large and substantial cathedral whose architectural features are two large towers with a cupola over the center of the building. Many fine paintings decorate the sacristy. The general plan of the building is similar to that of the cathedral of Lima, but on a smaller scale.

Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas, was made a bishopric as early as 1536. Construction of the cathedral was begun the same year, but for one reason and another the building was not completed until 90 years thereafter. It is in the style of the Spanish renaissance and was built of stone at a tremendous cost. The interior consists of three naves separated by stone pillars which support the high vaulted arches. In the central nave is the choir, the carving of which is superb. In front of it stands the high altar, covered with silver. Two fine organs fill the church with the music of their rich tones on Sundays and feast days. Among the most valuable of its treasures is a painting, "El Señor de la Agonia," said to be one of Van Dyck's masterpieces. In the sacristy are portraits of the popes and of all the bishops of Cuzco. One of the most precious possessions of the cathedral is the monstrance, which is ornamented with pearls, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other precious stones of great value.

Huaraz was made an episcopal see in 1899 and the erection of a new cathedral is being contemplated.

Stories of South American Birds, by George K. Cherrie, in a recent number of The American Museum Journal, is an account of the nesting peculiarities and habits of several varieties of these interesting denizens of the forests of the northern part of that continent. The ingenuity which some of these birds exercise in safeguarding their eggs from their enemies is surprising. Mr. Cherrie describes quite a number of such instances, some of the most interesting being brought out in the following excerpts from the article:

In my long experience as a natural history collector, particularly in South America, I have derived the greatest pleasure from studying the nesting habits of the birds. In addition to the pleasure obtained, a careful study of nests, eggs, and habits of the adult birds at nesting time has enabled me to learn much regarding relationships of various species. There is much also to be learned about bird psychology as a result of such study.

Apropos of the latter, I have frequently been asked if I thought individual birds showed peculiar tastes, in any way differing from other birds of the same species, and in reply I have sometimes told of my experience with the broad-billed yellow flycatcher of the genus Rhynchocyclus, which is very abundant along the middle Orinoco. Near my camp, in the neighborhood of Caicara, I found many nests of these birds; in one case three of them within a radius of 50 yards. One of these three was composed entirely of small, threadlike vegetable fibers of a shiny black color. Another was of dark gray-brown fibers, while the third was composed of very fine grasses, pale brownish-gray in color. There is little doubt that the black vegetable fibers were just as abundant and as easily accessible to the two other pairs as to the birds that employed them in the construction of their nest; so also were the gray fibers as accessible to the birds using the black ones. If it was not individual taste that induced the birds to employ the different colored fibers, I do not know what it was.

As showing how light can be thrown on the relationships of Lirds the following instance is of interest: Of the nests of six species of spinetail (Synallaxis) that I have found, five were of the usual form and materials; extraordinary structures about three-fourths of a yard long, composed of dry, usually thorny twigs, skillfully woven into a cylindrical mass, with a long tubular entrance to the nest cavity, which occupies the lower half of the cylindrical nest body. This nest might be described as retort shaped. It is sometimes built within a few inches of the ground, but may be several yards above it. The nest proper is supported ordinarily between the twigs or small branches of the limb, while the entrance to the nest lies along the main branch and is held up by it. As a rule, these thorny nests are not concealed in any way by surrounding foliage or bushes, the birds apparently depending upon the sharp thorns of which the nest is composed for protection; also, the nest proper is concealed by the great mass of twigs on the top of it. These twigs are laid longitudinally, so as to form a kind of thatched roof, thus protecting the nest from rain, as it is usually occupied during the height of the rainy season.

The nest cavity is lined with soft, dry leaves and wood fiber, as a foundation for an inner nest lining of gray lichens. The nests of five of the species of spinetail were all of this general type, but that of the sixth species, the fox-red spinetail, was entirely different. I had been seeking the nest of this species for weeks, and some time prior to my discovery of it I found a pair of the birds hovering about what appeared to me to be a mass of drift grass that had lodged between the forks at the top of a slender sapling. At that time it was about 2 meters above the surface of the river. (The sapling stood in a flooded area perhaps 100 meters from the river shore.)