vi Preface. 
a lack of originality; also, that this kind of title 
has been used hitherto for works constructed more 
or less on the plan of the famous Naturalist on the 
Amazons. After this apology, the reader on his 
part, will readily admit that, in treating of the 
Natural History of a district so well known and 
often described as the southern portion of La Plata, 
which has a temperate climate, and where nature 
is neither exuberant nor grand, a personal narrative 
would have seemed superfluous.” 
“Of all animals, birds have perhaps afforded me 
the most pleasure; but most of the fresh knowledge 
I have been able to collect in this department is 
contained in a larger work—Argentine Ornithology— 
written in collaboration with Dr P. L. Sclater. As I 
have not gone over any of the subjects dealt with 
in that work, bird-life has not received more than 
a fair share of attention in the present volume.” 
Wore 
June 1903. 
