3 
Dr. Andrew Wilson, in ‘‘The Illustrated London News,” 
says :— 
‘‘A most beautiful work .. . is delightfully suggestive to the mind of the reader. The 
author seeks to show forth the philosophy of the animals he has studied. His work, in place 
of being a series of dry descriptions, teems with ideas, which serve to explain to us, for 
example, why birds dance and sing, why animals feign death, why birds develop the ‘ instinct 
.of fear,’ how the instincts of cattle arise, and how mosquitoes and other parasitic pests 
have come to enjoy the fulness of their little lives. . . . Mr. Hudson is great in the matter 
of birds, it is true, but he is equally happy, it seems to me, when: he is dealing with other 
animals whose ways he has studied in their native haunts. It is this outdoor study of nature 
which gives a freshness to a man’s descriptions such as he never otherwise exhibits.” 
The ‘‘ Daily Telegraph” says :— 
‘‘As strange and fantastic as the mythical marvels of any famous fairy tales are the 
wonders of bird and insect life narrated in Mr. W. H. Hudson's delightful collection of 
essays, ‘The Naturalist in La Plata,’ and no less charmingly than profusely illustrated. 
The author, obviously an ardent and accomplished student of animated nature, keeps his 
technical erudition discreetly under control, and contents himself with describing in strikingly 
pictorial language the habits, recreations, and special characteristics of the South American 
fauna, Nothing appears to have escaped his scrutiny, and he has the fascinating gift of im- 
parting to his readers the contagion of his own intense interest in the results of his sedulous 
and intelligent observation. He tells us stories without number about the idiosyncrasies of 
birds. There are also two inimitable chapters treating of spiders, and of freaks of nature 
which Mr. Hudson has seen and lost.’’ 
The ‘‘Saturday Review ” says :— 
“‘Mr. Hudson has given us a delightful volume, full of freshness and curious information. 
He has made it sensational by drawing attention to the marvels of nature, to her strange 
freaks and seemingly fantastic eccentricities. He has recounted the old tales of credulous 
travellers, only to ridicule them ; but, on the other hand, he relates many well-authenticated 
facts which are scarcely less startling. He tells many sensational or humorous stories by 
way of illustration. He shows how heredity comes out in races and species; and how 
animals are brought to modify or alter their habits in conformity with altered circumstances. 
In almost every chapter he suggests indirectly the eternal question whether there is any 
essential distinction between reason and what is popularly called instinct. Indeed, the diffi- 
culty appears to arise from denying to the brute creation the privilege of being idiotic, or of 
doing very foolish things, like the great mass of human beings. He would appear to have 
spent years as a settler on the Pampas, Dreary and monotonous his surroundings must 
have been, although, as a naturalist, he found inexhaustible sources of interest.” 
The ‘‘ Spectator” says :— 
“ By far the most striking of the interesting essays and observations in his later book is 
the wholly new and interesting light in which the puma is presented in its relations to man, 
The subject is most interesting, and the anecdotes collected by Mr. Hudson should be com- 
pared with the experience of other writers on the natural history of the Southern plains, in 
which, if our recollection is not wrong, much independent and corroborative evidence 
will be found tending to establish the curious affection which the puma has for man. 
This most interesting book... is one to buy and read, for matter and style are alike 
excellent.”” 
The ‘‘ Guardian” says :— 
‘* What is surprising and charming in the present book is the amount of fresh formation 
about the larger and more commonly known forms of the continent. As a book of descrip- 
tion alone the book has certainly been surpassed by very few, but Mr. Hudson has added to 
the descriptions many important and persuasive speculations as to the history of forms and 
instincts. ... Thoroughly delightful from cover to cover, beautifully illustrated, and, if 
one may venture to say so, evideritly the work ofa very brilliant and generous mind.” 
“‘ Quarterly Review,’ Oct. 1892. 
“The latest volume on the zoology of South America is not the least instructive and 
entertaining. Mr. Hudson apologizes unnecessarily for his somewhat commonplace title of 
“The Naturalist in La Plata,’ which is a strzightforward indication of a lively and amusing 
book. As Balzac undertook to depict the ‘Comédia Humaine,’ so this is the comedy of 
animated tropical nature by a careful, scientific, and humorous observer.’ 
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED, LONDON. 
