The Naturalist in La Plata

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About this book

The Naturalist in La Plata is a book by W. H. Hudson. The preface says the plan has been to sift and arrange the facts gathered concerning the habits of the animals best known to the author, preserving those only which, in the author's judgment, appeared worth recording. The text says the pampa, with its heavy, moist mould, is not the tuco's proper place, and that the animal is not seen but heard, for all day long and all night its voice sounds, resonant and loud, like a succession of blows from a hammer.

The text says that greatest among the carnivores are the two cat-monarchs of South America, the jaguar and puma. The text says the death-feigning instinct, found only in a few widely-separated species, has probably been built up by the slow cumulative process of natural selection. The text says that on the pampas the gauchos frequently take the black-necked swan by frightening it.

About the author

W. H. Hudson

W. H. Hudson (1841-1922) was an author and naturalist born to American parents on the Argentine pampas, who later settled in England. He wrote novels, memoirs, and celebrated works of nature writing, drawing throughout on a boyhood spent among the birds and open plains of South America.