MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XI 



from Norfolk," being those for the year 1883 appeared. During 

 the whole of this long period his communications to this journal 

 form a most valuable history of the ornithology of the county, and 

 many were the rare species which it fell to his lot to chronicle. 



On the establishment of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists'' 

 Society he became a frequent contributor to its " Transactions,"' 

 the most important of which, in addition to the annual papers on 

 the ornithological occurrences, were a paper on the " Meres of 

 Wretham Heath," in August, 1869 ; " On the Abundance of 

 Little Gulls on the Norfolk Coast, in the winter of 1869-70," in 

 December, 1870 ; his Presidential address to that society, and an 

 admirable paper on " Scoulton Gullery," in 1871 ; some valuable 

 remarks on the " Wild Birds Protection Act of 1872," a sub- 

 ject in which he took the greatest interest, and concerning 

 which he gave evidence before a select committee of the House 

 of Commons, in 1873 ; a memoir of his late friend the Eev.. 

 Richard Lubbock, in 1877 ; a paper " On the abundance of 

 Pomatorhine and smaller Skuas on the Norfolk Coast, in October 

 and November, 1879," in April, 1880 ; a valuable paper " On the 

 Plumage of the Waxwing," in November, 1881 ; "On the occur- 

 rence of the Dusky Petrel in Norfolk in 1858," read in Novem- 

 ber, 1882 ; his last contributions to the society's " Transactions "^ 

 being in March, ] 888, when he read a paper on the " Vocal and 

 other Sounds emitted by the Common Snipe ; " and a note on the 

 " Tenacity of life in young House Martins," read in the same- 

 year. 



Mr. Stevenson was also the author of the " List of Norfolk 

 Birds," in White's " History and Directory of the County of 

 Norfolk," in the editions of 1864 and 1883, as well as of many 

 communications to the "Field " and " Land and Water," but the- 

 work which established his fame as a field ornithologist was his 

 " Birds of Norfolk" of which I have now to speak. 



The original plan of the " Birds of Norfolk " seems to have 

 been on a much more modest scale than that of the finished work» 

 A short account of each species was written in a series of note- 

 books which from internal evidence I should imagine were finished 

 about the year 1863 ; these formed the basis of the articles, but 

 as they finally appeared they had been greatly expanded, and in 

 most cases entirely re-written, the information being brought 

 fully up to the time when each successive portion went to press,. 

 and so great was the author's desire for accuracy and completeness 

 that in some cases even sheets Avhich had been printed off were 

 cancelled in favour of more correct or more recent information. 

 I believe it was impossible for any book to have been written with 

 a greater regard to absolute truth or more conscientiously than 



