NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 



common type, with fine mottlings of brown almost obliterating the 

 ground colour. Several interesting points in regard to the above have 

 occurred to me, and I trust some of my readers may be equally inter- 

 ested, and perhaps be able to solve some of them. Granted, as is 

 generally accepted, that the Cuckoo removes one of the eggs of the 

 fosterers on depositing its own, there must have been seven eggs of the 

 Hedge-Accentor's in the original clutch, which would be a very remark- 

 able number for this species ; for, as far as my own experience goes, five 

 is a large clutch, threes and fours predominating. Again, if these two 

 Cuckoos' eggs are the produce of two separate birds, as I have every 

 reason to believe, is it not remarkable that two females should have 

 found the same nest, which was beautifully concealed, and could only 

 be seen by kneeling on the ground, and looking up through the bush ? 

 Finally, would the foster-parents have been equal to the occasion in 

 regard to the feeding of the two Cuckoos, or would one of them, 

 following their inherited instinct, have ejected its companion ? There 

 appears to have been quite an epidemic of two Cuckoo's eggs being de- 

 posited in one nest, this season no fewer than four well-authenticated 

 cases having been brought before me. One of them had the two eggs 

 placed in the nest of the Kedbreast (Erithacus rubecula) ; the three eggs 

 of the foster-parents were pure white, and almost round. — P. F. Bun- 

 yard (57, Kidderminster Eoad, Croydon). 



Pelecanus onocrotalus at Whitstable. — In the early part of July 

 last a solitary White Pelican was observed on the shore near Whit- 

 stable, and it has remained in the neighbourhood up to the present 

 time (October), having been seen as recently as the 20th ult. The bird 

 has its night-quarters in the open marshes near the shore, some dis- 

 tance from the town, and when not engaged in sea-fishing roams over 

 the pastures, and is often seen resting on the ground among the sheep 

 at a distance of over a mile inland. The pastures are intersected with 

 ditches and stream-dykes, which afford the Pelican food, but its 

 almost daily habit has been to go to the shore on a fishing excursion 

 when the tide is well out. Lately its visits to the sea have been less 

 frequent, owing probably to the many attempts which have been made 

 to shoot or capture it. The bird is strong on the wing, and happily 

 has, so far, eluded its pursuers, and been uninjured by their guns. 

 Information was sent to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, of the 

 presence of the Pelican in this locality, and it was ascertained that no 

 such bird had escaped from that collection. The idea now is that it 

 escaped from a vessel, and made its way to the Kentish shore, which at 

 this spot affords it a suitable temporary home ; but with the approach 



