How to keep cool while birding on hot cloudless days - a useful tip from Victorian naturalist W.H. Hudson

                                                                    

Hudson - he kept a sponge in his hat on hot days

INhis book Nature in Downland (published in 1900), naturalist-author W H Hudson offers a tip on how to keep cool on hot days.

He writes: "My custom on going out on the hills is to carry a wetted pocket handkerchief or piece of sponge in my hat.

"By renewing the moisture three or four times, or as often as water is found, I am able to keep my head perfectly cool during a ramble of ten or twelve hours on a cloudless day."

He adds: "So long as the head is comfortable there is nothing to fear, the rest of the system being safeguarded by nature. Exercise keeps the body cool."

Hudson's childhood was spent in Argentina where he says the less effective practice was to use a cabbage leaf or thick fleshy leaf of some other plant as a "brain protector".