142 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



by the sight of the water, and settled in a field close to the river, 

 causing a stampede among the cattle and sheep grazing in the 

 meadows. A local innkeeper, Mr. S. Stevens, stalked and shot 

 the bird, which turned out to be a fine male "White Pelican 

 (Pelecanus onocrotalus) . According to the local papers, it 

 measured twelve feet in expanse of wing, and weighed fifty 

 pounds. I saw it in Mr. Hutchinson's shop, and the plumage 

 was clean and in good order, and, as the nearest place where 

 these birds are kept in captivity is at least fifty miles away, it 

 must have possessed considerable powers of flight. Up to the 

 present no information as to the escape of any captive bird has 

 reached us.* 



After high winds on the preceding day a very large flock of 

 Gulls visited the Dove Valley, and rested for a short time in the 

 meadows above Okeover on Nov. 27th. Mr. J. Henderson, who 

 estimated the number of the flock at one hundred and fifty at 

 least, believed that most of them were Herring-Gulls (L. argen- 

 tatus). The same observer also informs me that a pair or two of 

 Nuthatches are to be found in Okeover Park.t 



Possibly the herd of Bewick's Swans (C. beivicki, Yarr.), which 

 visited this district in 1904 (Zool. 1905, p. 58), may have returned 

 in 1905, for on a Sunday afternoon early in December (probably 

 Dec. 3rd) Mr. J. E. C. Godber and a friend heard in the distance 

 loud trumpeting notes, and soon afterwards nineteen Swans 

 came into sight, crossing the Trent near Willington, and flying 

 northward. An interesting feature of the last few seasons has 

 been the decided increase in the number of Herons, which are 

 now quite a feature on the upper part of the Dove Valley, and in 

 that of the Manifold. These birds seem to have benefited by the 

 protection orders, and are certainly more numerous now than 

 formerly. 



* It is perhaps worth noting that the White Pelican has recently been 

 recorded frorn Bavaria in a wild state, as well as the Flamingo, which is ad- 

 mitted to the British list by Mr. Howard Saunders on somewhat similar 

 evidence to the above. 



f He also informs me that he had a good view of a Black Eat, not a 

 melanistic Water- Vole, but a long-tailed animal with pointed head, by a small 

 barn not far from Hanging Bridge. We have no properly authenticated in- 

 stance of the occurrence of Mus rattus in the county, though probably at one 

 time it was common. 



