In the autumn of 1958, Gerald Durrell, by this time no less famous writer than his older brother Lawrence, went to Argentina on the ship Star of England. As his wife Jackie recalled, it was Darrell’s long-time dream to visit Patagonia and see with his own eyes the colonies of thousands of penguins, and watch the life of seals and elephant seals. In addition, he was going to bring from the expedition a collection of South American animals for his zoo. The tapir Claudius, baby Juanita, the parrot Blanco and others became not only the inhabitants of the Jersey Zoo and everyone’s favorites, but also the prototypes of the funny and endlessly touching characters of Darrell’s new book about Argentina, “The Land of Rustles.” “If animals, birds and insects could talk,” wrote one English critic, “they would have awarded Mr. Durrell their first Nobel Prize...”