83 
VIII. 
Remarks on Mr. Leigh Hunt's “ Birds of Thetford," as puhlished 
in his History of “ Tiie Capital of the Ancient Kingdom of 
East Anglia." 
By II. Stevenson, F.L.S. 
It is greatly to be regretted that when, through the suggestion of 
Mr. Thomas Southwell, the members of the Xorwich Xaturalists’ 
Society are endeavouring to collect materials from all parts of the 
County for the publication of correct lists of its Fauna and Flora, 
a work of so much pretension as the above, and devoted to the 
history of so important a locality, should, as far as the natural 
histoi’y portion is concerned, fall so far short of the requirements 
of the present day. That ]\Ir. Hunt has laboured long and 
zealously to complete his self-imposed task there is no question, but 
in a work of this description, comprising so many different topics, 
historical, antiquarian, geological, and zoological, the author, unless 
possessed of super-human capabilities, — in short, an “ Admirable 
Creighton in literature — must needs fail in those departments 
with which he is least acquainted ; but which, by a division of 
labour, as in Stacy’s and White’s Jlistories of Norfolk, might have 
afforded reliable information. 
I shall here deal simply with the Ornithological portion of the 
chapter (xxvi.), which Mr. Hunt has devoted to “ The Natural 
History of Thetford ; ” but, inasmuch as the author, in a foot note, 
expresses himself as “ largely indebted ” to the Birds of Norfolk 
“ for many of the /ac/*’ supplied in the text,” for the credit of that 
publication alone, I feel bound to notice the fictions which have 
been circulated in this. 
Preparatory to commencing what he terms “ a complete list ” of 
the various kinds of birds in that neighbourhood, “ together ^vith 
their nomenclature, under the heads, common^ native, migrants, 
rare," l\Ir. Hunt remarks, “ by this arrangement, the reader, learned 
or unlearned in the science, will possess a guide to the Ornithology 
G 2 
