2 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
allowed to peruse any f nture books so powerfully written, and embracing so 
many acute observations, as may be found in the charming chapters on 
Patagonia." 
Natural Science says :— "If every sojourner in remote regions of the 
world occupied his ' idle days' as profitably as has Mr. Hudson, our informa- 
tion regarding the animal life and its inanimate surroundings of the whole 
globe would be far less incomplete than it unfortunately is at present. We 
are, indeed, glad to welcome another volume by this author, written in the 
same charming and lucid style as his ' Naturalist'in La Plata,' and embellished 
by illustrations executed in the same beautiful style. ... In commending 
this book to the attention of our readers, we may express a hope that it will 
ere long be followed by others from the same ready pen." 
The Scotsman says : — " 'Idle Days'in Patagonia' is a corollary to the 
author's ' Naturalist in La Plata,' itself one of the most delightful books of 
travel and natural history that has appeared for many years. In the new 
volume Mr. Hudson presents himself almost more as the poet than as the 
observer of wild nature. . . . There is not a dull or an unsuggestive page in 
his book. Personal adventures there are not a few, but Mr. Hudson is 
almost more interesting when he turns aside to meditate upon, and illustrate 
from the rich store of his reading and experience, such themes as bird-music, 
migratory instincts, the ' quality of whiteness ' in snow and other natural 
objects, the mysteries enfolded in the sense of smell, keenness of sight and 
colour-sense in savage and in civilized men, and the predominating colour of 
the eye, and its significance in different races of mankind." 
The Manchester Guardian says: — "Mr. Hudson combines the 
naturalist's keen faculty of observation with rare powers of description and 
of appeal to the feelings as well as the intellect. The many and valuable 
observations made during years of study in Nature's great book are to him no 
series of isolated facts. His book is no mere record of a collector's tour in 
a comparatively little known part of the world. His interest is scientific in 
the highest sense of the word ; natural history as he understands it forms 
a continuous whole with psychology and the history and the development of 
the human race. He appeals not only to those who have a technical know- 
ledge of ornithology, but to the larger class who would seek in Nature's 
smaller secrets the clue to her greater ones. . . . Never do Mr. Hudson's 
' Idle Days ' savour of weariness, and his descriptions of his own sensations 
have nothing of selfishness. By idleness he means not inactivity of mind or 
body, but the patient waiting upon Nature that must be practised by those 
who would receive her revelations. The print and illustrations are worthy of 
the book." 
The Daily !N"ews says : — " ' Idle Days in Patagonia' record a sojourn 
in a country of immense, unmeasured, unpeopled plains, and the author's 
record of his mental as well as his physical experiences attests the truth that 
a traveller only sees what he brings with him. Happj' the temperament and 
enviable the capacity and the knowledge which can find, as Mr. Hudson has 
found, interest and instruction in everything that grows and everything t!iat 
flies, and who can tell his thoughtful tale in language so expressive and so 
engaging." 
The Guardian says : — " This is a remarkable book, hy one who has, in 
a ver}^ short space of time, established an undeniable claim to be regarded as 
a remarkable writer." 
