SOME OPINIONS OF THE PBESS ON 
THE NATURALIST IN LA PLATA. 
By W. H. HUDSON, C.M.Z.S. 
SECOND EDITION. 
With Numerous Illustrations by J. Smit. Demy 8vo, 168. 
Mr. Alfred R. Wallace in Nature says :—" What renders this work of such 
extreme value and interest is, that it is not written by a traveller or a mere temporary 
rebident, but by one born in the country, to whom its various tribes of beasts, birds, and 
insects have been familiar from childhood; who is imbued with love and admiration for 
every form of life; and who for twenty years has observed carefully and recorded 
accurately everything of interest in the life-histories of the various species with which he 
has become acquainted. . . . These subjects are discussed with a fulness and originality 
the result of long personal observation, and will command the careful attention of tho>e 
who are interested in the mental phenomena presented by animals. It remains only to 
add that the book is beautifully got up, that the text is singularly free from misprints, 
and that the numerous illustrations — photographic reproductions of drawings — are at 
once delicate and characteristic. Never has the present writer derived so much pleasure 
and instruction from a book on the habits and instincts of animals. He feels sure that it 
will long continue to be a storehouse of facts and observations of the greatest value to the 
philosophical naturalist, while to the general reader it will rank as the most interesting 
and delightful of modern books on natural history." 
Mr. R. Lyddeker in Natural Science says :— Seldom, if ever, have we 
read with such extreme pleasure and interest any work on the habits and ways of animals 
in their native state as Mr. W. H. Hudson's 'The Naturalist in La Plata,' a volume which 
is in every respect a wonhy successur to Mr. Bates's ' Jsaturalist on the Amazons,' or Mr. 
Wallace's • Malay Archipelago.' Mr. Hudson is, indeed, in some respects unrivalled as 
an observer of animate nature, and is equally at home when treating of the ways of large 
ferocious animals like tiie puma, or when describing the curious dances of the birds of tlie 
Pampas. He has lalso the rare charm of conveying to his readers the results of his 
observations in such bright and vivid language as cannot fail to make the volume accept- 
able to all lovers of nature. Indeed, so striking is his word-painting, that we seem to 
realize the scenes described, even without the aid of the very excellent figures with which 
many of them are illustrated." 
The National Observer says :— "Mr. Hudson's book has a right to a place in the 
naturalist's library beside 'The Voyage of the Beagle,' Bates's 'Amazons,' and Belt's 
• Nicaragua.' It is the pith and marrow of years of collecting and observing on the great 
plains of the Plate, by a man who knows how to write as well as how to observe. His 
more cumbrous results are contained in ' Argentine Ornithology,' written in conjunction 
with Dr. Sclater. Here he leaves himself free to explore the rich and strange field of 
animal life between the Andes and the Atlantic; to hunt down and examine the facts and 
theories of previous authorities ; and to start original ideas. Birds have, perhaps, the first 
place in his love. He notes their habits and instincts : from the gaunt rhea, tbe last relic 
of the age of the glypiodon, down to those ♦ living sunbeams,' the humming-birds. Ho 
