1050 Birds. 



with in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham,' published in 

 the ' Transactions of the Nat. Hist. Soc. of Northumberland, Durham 

 and Newcastle-upon-Tyne,' vol. i. 1831, it will be seen that that emi- 

 nent ornithologist only gives two hundred and seventeen species* for 

 the large space of country comprised in those two entire counties; con- 

 sequently in my very limited district there have been found only seven 

 species fewer than in Northumberland and Durham together. I find 

 also from Mr. Yarrell's excellent ' History of British Birds,' which is 

 lately completed, that the total number of species in Great Britain 

 amounts to three hundred and twenty-six ; so that Mr. Selby's num- 

 ber is exactly two-thirds of the whole British species, and mine falls 

 short of two-thirds by only seven species. As accuracy is the most 

 essential quality, and chief value of a catalogue of the sort here form- 

 ed, I have been most careful in excluding from it every bird, which 

 vague rumour, or report alone, has stated to have been seen in this 

 vicinity. 



If, however, we consider the nature of the district, which has been 

 defined by the limits before mentioned, we shall not be surprized at 

 learning that so many species have been observed within it. 



In the first place, for the haunts of land-birds, there is nearly every 

 kind of ground, — highland and lowland, bare moorland and cultivated 

 fields, hills — rather mountains — exceeding 1000 feet in height from 

 the sea-level, valleys, woods and wooded dales, small plantations, or 

 copses, land covered with heather, whins and brushwood, open large 

 fields on a clayey wet soil, and on a dry rich loam. And in the se- 

 cond place, for the breeding and resort of wild fowl and other water- 

 birds, there are boggy spots on the moors, numerous small rivulets and 

 streams, an extensive tract of river, in the lower part of which the tide 

 flows for a considerable distance, and where, at low water, its sandy 

 or muddy banks are spacious, — considerable salt-marshes, an estuary 

 of a great many miles in circumference ; a noble expanse of sea or 

 ocean ; the coast itself, either abounding with cliffs, rocks, rocky ca- 

 verns, crevices and holes ; or a pure sandy beach, or sand-hills with 

 numerous rabbit-burrows, or shingle ; or bold and lofty head-lands, pre- 

 senting to the sea grand and rugged surfaces of perpendicular rock. 

 Hence, with such varieties of soil and water, we may always expect to 

 discover some strange bird passing either from the southern and more 



* It is remarkable that the number of species contained in ' A Catalogue of the 

 Norfolk and Suffolk Birds,' by the Rev. Messrs. Shepperd and Whitear, published in 

 vol. xv. of the Linnean Transactions, 1826, should exactly correspond with Mr. Selby's 

 number. 



