Unlike the English in India, the half-Spanish races of Peru have paid little attention to the history and languages of the aborigines, within the present century; and, if left to them, all traces of the language of the Incas, and of the songs and traditions which remain in it, would, in the course of another century, almost entirely disappear. A few honourable exceptions must, however, be recorded. The late Mariano Rivero paid much attention to the antiquities of his country, and the results of his labours have been published at Vienna.[283] The curas of some of the parishes in the interior, also, especially Dr. Dava of Pucara, Dr. Rosas of Chinchero, and the Cura of Oropesa, near Cuzco, are excellent Quichua scholars, but they are very old men, and their knowledge will die with them. Dr. Dava had a large collection of the finches, and other birds of the loftier parts of the Andes, hanging in wicker cages along the wall of his house. Amongst them were a little dove called _urpi_; the bright yellow little songster called _silgarito_ in Spanish, and _cchaiña_ in Quichua; the _tuya_, another larger warbler; the _chocclla-poccochi_ or nightingale of Peru; and a little finch with glossy black plumage, pink on the back, and whitish-grey under the wings. He also had some small green paroquets, with long tails and bluish wings, which make their nests under the eaves of roofs, at a height of fourteen thousand feet above the sea. At Pucara some of the inhabitants have small manufactories for making glazed earthenware basins, pots, plates, and cups,[284] which find an extensive market in the villages and towns of the department of Puno, and which will probably long hold their own against the same kind of coarse wares from Europe or the United States. From Puno to Pucara I had travelled along the main-road to Cuzco; but, at the latter place, I branched off to the eastward, to pass through the province of Azangaro to that of Caravaya. The main-road continues in a northerly direction, crosses the snowy range of Vilcañota near Ayaviri, and descends the valley of the Vilcamayu to Cuzco. At Pucara I left post-houses and post-mules behind me, for they only exist on the main-roads between Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco, and Lima; henceforth I had to depend on being able to induce private persons to let out their mules or ponies to me.