Idle Days in Patagonia

William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) was born near Quilmes, in the province of Buenos Aires and about ten miles from the Argentine capital. His childhood and youth were spent on his father's estancia on the Argentine pampas, from which he made many excursions into the remoter parts of the surrounding country. Hudson lived two lives, literally worlds apart: as a young adventurer in South America, and later as an English field naturalist. His boyhood was spent watching birds and snakes, and as a young man he travelled widely on horseback, visiting, Patagonia, amongst other countries, making collections of bird skins and writing accounts of bird life which won the admiration of leading naturalists, including Darwin. Two South American bird species bear his name.