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[[image of large horizontal building]]
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
CENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET, NEW YORK 24, NEW YORK

DEPARTMENT OF ORNITHOLOGY
Dean Amadon, Ph.D., Sc.D., Lamont Curator of Birds, Chairman

E. Thomas Gilliard, Sc.D. Associate Curator
Wesley E. Lanyon, Ph.D. Assistant Curator
Charles E. O'Brien Assistant Curator
Charles Vaurie, D.D.S. Assistant Curator
William George, Ph.D. Chapman Fellow
Paul Slud, Ph.D. Research Fellow
Robert Cushman Murphy, Sc.D. Dr. Hon. Causa, Lamont Curator Emeritus of Oceanic Birds
James P. Chapin, Ph.D. Associate Curator Emeritus of African Birds
Jean Delacour, Lic. Sci. Research Associate
Eugene Eisenmann, LL.B. Research Associate
Crawford H. Greenewalt, Sc.D. Research Associate
Ernst Mayr, Ph.D. Research Associate in Old World Birds
Charles K. Nichols Research Associate and Honorary Librarian
John Kieran, Sc.D. Field Associate
G. Stuart Keith, M.A. (Oxon) Associate
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26 March, 1963

Dear Moynihan:

Welcome to Peru. Maria has told me of your objectives; and if it were possible I would have enjoyed being on hand to discuss them with you and to offer you whatever aid and encouragement that I might. By the time you receive this letter I'll probably have arrived in southern Peru, from which I hope to return to Lima within about ten days before completing arrangements to go to several points in the Department of Junin.

It is my impression that you have selected an inhospitable time of the year for your studies. Not that the situation is hopeless. At the present time, however, both weather conditions and the political weather are unfavorable in the Sierra, or so at least my recent experiences at Chachapoyas, Machu Picchu and Maraynioc have led me to believe. All of these places are remote. I can tell you a little about each of them.

Chachapoyas. There are two raods to this city, one going to it from Cajamarca, the other going to it from the north, via Olmos and across the Rio Maranon. The former road is now absolutely impassible (it is a new road, its surface still so soft that the slightest rain modifies it and quickly churns it into a quagmire). When I was in Chachapoyas during the third week of February, not even the most intrepid great trucks could use this road. The other road is much better; but when the true dense rainfall of the rainy season arrives, it too becomes impassible. It was still good when I was there but the heavy rains had just started. Perhaps it is still all right; but it would be best to fly to Chachapoyas. Fawcett Airlines, according to my information, flys into there on Wednesdays and Saturadays, in DC-3's; rate is about $52.00 US, roundtrip. (Fawcett reservation office is in the building of the Bolivar Hotel and faces onto the Plaza de San Martin). As for the Humid Temp. Zone of Chachapoyas, it is difficult to reach from the town; much logging of it has occurred (the "woods" at Maraynioc seeme