INTRODUCTION. 



In the ''Transactions of the JS'athral History Society of 



JsToETHirMIBEIlLAJO), DuEHAM, AND ISTeWCASTLE-UPON-TyNE," the 



late Prideaux John Selby, Esq., of Twizell, published a cata- 

 logue of the birds of the two JsTorthern Counties : this appeared 

 in 1831. Up to that time no list, of any authority, of the birds 

 of this district, had been published. 



"Wallis, indeed, in his "Ifatural History and Antiquities of 

 Northumberland," published in 1769, had given a very imper- 

 fect list of the birds of that county, in which fifty species are 

 enumerated. This author states that he ''might name other 

 migratory Fissipedes, as the Woodcock, etc., but as they are 

 common I pass on to the Palmipedes.''^ It is therefore evident 

 that his object was to record only the rarer or more remarkable 

 species. 



No other list was made for nearly half a century, when in 

 the History of Hartlepool, by Sir Cuthbert Sharp, published in 

 1816, there appeared a "List of birds observed at Hartlepool." 

 This list contains sixty-eight species. 



A more important and extensive catalogue of the birds "fre- 

 quenting the country near Stockton" appeared in 1827. This 

 was drawn up by the late John Hogg, Esq., of Norton, and 

 published in his " Natural History of the Yicinity of Stockton." 

 It also appeared as an appendix to Brewster's history of that 

 town; and, although prepared with considerable care, is very 

 incomplete. It includes one hundred and twenty-six species, but 

 nothing of remarkable interest, with the exception of the Grol- 

 den Eagle. This name, however, is evidently a mistake, as the 

 measurements which are given prove it to have been, without 

 doubt, the White-tailed or Sea-Eagle. 



