26 AUGUST 1922, Page 3

Mr. W. H. Hudson, who died last Friday, was in

many respects a unique figure. Asa, naturalist he was unsurpassed in his own field. His abnormal memory for the details of Nature and his unusually accurate power of observation were fostered by a love and sympathy for Nature as rare as they were sincere. He really felt more familiar with plants and animals and took more pleasure in their society than in that of men. It became a sort of ecstasy with him. A writer in the .Manchester Guardian has said that when necessary for purposes of observation, he would stand quite motionless with his body at right angles to his legs for an hour or more without feeling his cramped position, so absorbed was he in the pursuit of his object.