184 Zoological Notes, by Andrew Brotherston. 



Smew {Mergus albellus), Penn. — Near the end of December, 



1876, Mr Scott, who has been exceptionally fortunate in picking 

 up many rare specimens for the Berwick Museum, obtained an 

 immature male of this singularly neat bird. It was hanging in 

 a poulterer's shop in Berwick, when he observed it ; unfortu- 

 nately he could not learn where it was shot, but in all probability 

 it would be near Berwick. 



Food op the Cormorant (Pelecanus carlo), Penn. — To any 

 person who has not seen the contents of the stomach of one of 

 these voracious birds, it seems incredible, the number and size 

 of the fish that they are able to contain. In one, an immature 

 bird, which was shot near Paxton, in the early part of January, 



1877, besides the remains of several nearly digested fish, there 

 was a Bull Trout (Salmo eriox, Linn) which was I7in. in length, 

 and I have no doubt that it could have swallowed one still 

 larger. The process of digestion was going on throughout the 

 whole length of the stomach most rapidly at the lower end where 

 the head of the fish was. 



Does the Water Vole become torpid in the winter ? — In 

 the stomach of a Heron which was shot near Nenthorn, January 

 23rd, 1877, I found a full grown Water Vole. It has been sup- 

 posed by some naturalists, that it becomes torpid during the cold 

 months. If so, the presence of this one in the Heron's stomach, 

 may be accounted for by the uncommon mildness of the last 

 winter. But I think it more likely that, instead of becoming 

 torpid, the Voles retire to the inner recesses of their holes which 

 are sometimes very extensive, and live on the stock of provisions 

 which they have accumulated for the occasion. They have also 

 been found at the same season a long way from water. White, 

 in his "Natural History of Selborne," Let. xxvi., dated Decem- 

 ber 8th, 1769, mentions one which a neighbour turned up when 

 ploughing a dry chalky field, far removed from any water, "that 

 was curiously laid up in an hylernaculum, artificially formed of 

 grass and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon 

 of potatoes, regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported 

 itself during the winter." 



Glaucous Gull {Larus glaucus), Bewick. — Several White- 

 winged Gulls were noticed in the neighbourhood of Berwick, in 

 the early part of 1877 — possibly both the Glaucous and Iceland 

 Gulls would be there, but of the former only can I be certain, 



