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." 



W. H. H. 



June 1903. 



