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LOCAL OCCURRENCES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 
“ local occurrences in Natural History” that have fallen under my notice in 
the district mentioned at the head of this paper, in a familiar and if possible 
“ popular” way ; by which I mean not a mere cursory or superficial view, but an 
examination so conducted, in non-technical language, of the objects presented in 
succession to the notice of the reader, as to be intelligible to all who have enjoyed 
the benefit of a common English education. My object, therefore, will not be to 
scare away the general reader, from the supposition that I am only writing for 
the professor or the adept. 
In early youth I was attracted by the Natural History of the English Counties , 
by Martin, a clever man in his day,* which I stumbled upon in a school library . 
and, meagre and defective as his statements then necessarily were, I felt a charm 
about them which often induced me to think that some day I would take an 
opportunity of examining facts of this kind in connection with the district in which 
I might happen to reside. The monthly calendar I used then occasionally to see 
in Time’s Telescope , and some other periodicals, gave me a fillip of the same 
kind; and when after many a pore over the well-known Description of Three- 
Hundred Animals , not forgetting the Griffins, Basilisks, and Unicorns that 
graced the appendix, I was at last enabled to become master of Bewick’s -Birds, 
I seized my memorandum-book and began at once, all ardour and zeal, to jour¬ 
nalize the sight of every Tom-tit or Squirrel that came within my ken. Time, 
the never-failing corrector of all out-breaks, cooled down this fervour, but left in 
its place a calm settled love for the charms of out-door observation, which domestic 
afflictions and the effect of peculiar circumstances on a nervous frame, only bound 
the closer to me, as a balm for every wound. 
I had been some years domiciled in Worcester and its vicinity, still attentive 
to the adjuncts of the beautiful scenery around, when an opportunity presented 
itself of combining my efforts with some enterprising friends in forming a Natural 
History Society there. In accordance with their wishes and my own inclinations, 
I became the first Honorary Curator to the Society; and, whatever may have 
been the exertions of others, did my best, con amore, to further its interests.f 
It would be tedious here to advert to the efforts of other gentlemen, particularly 
as the Reports of past years have detailed them, and it is only necessary to state 
that the public responded heartily to the call made upon them to support the 
new Institution thus created. Of course I considered that various facts I had 
collected on the Natural History of Worcestershire would now prove useful, and 
I searched for more, under the impression that local occurrences of this nature 
* Remembered now, I believe, only as a mathematician, though he wrote on various philoso¬ 
phical subjects—but later writers have “ superseded” him, as in the roll of events they will us also. 
f A. Lecture on the Analogies and Associations of Man with Plants and Animals was (among 
other Lectures) delivered by me to the Society, and published in 8vo., by Edwards, London. 
