Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/295

Rh may find food even there; and we well know they do not confine themselves to a fish diet. Young Moorhens and Coot are often taken, as well as young Wild Duck. I am informed that in April, the Otter-hounds—from Devonshire, I believe—which usually make an annual visit to this neighbourhood, killed one Otter and lost another in the small stream that separates the counties of Hants and Dorset; and only a few days ago (May 16th) I saw one that had been killed near the same place; it was a male, and weighed sixteen pounds. Some time ago a gamekeeper told me he had several times, in the early morning, seen what he thought was an old Otter and young ones disporting themselves in a particular part of the river, and in the dim twilight had once had an unsuccessful shot at them. One morning some time afterwards, however, about 9 a.m., he saw two Otters, about the size of terriers, playing like puppies in the sunshine, on the river bank. One of these he shot (which I saw), but he said he had no sooner shot than (what he supposed was) the old female and another young one made their appearance out in the stream, the larger of the two raising itself in the water, at the same time uttering a loud and shrill whistle, repeated again and again, as if anxiously calling the slaughtered cub. As far as I can learn, none of the Otters of which I have spoken were preserved, except as skins for the sake of the fur, which is much sought after for dress trimmings, &c. The man who caught the eight Otters before mentioned has been a river keeper all his life, and during the time has shot and trapped some scores of them; but he tells me that only in one solitary instance has he trapped an Otter by the hind leg, and he is under the impression that on occasions when his traps have been "thrown" and unoccupied, the Otter has managed to withdraw its hind foot from the jaws of the trap; and this supposition seems very feasible, if we note the difference in the form of the hind and fore feet, for the latter are comparatively (I use the word advisedly) soft and fan-like, whilst the former are tapering and rigid; and any person who has inspected an Otter must have been struck with the wonderful strength that must be developed in the short thick limbs, neck, and jaws of the cylindrical body, which, together with the glossy close-set hair and under fur, adapts it so admirably to its mode of life, and the element in which it delights to live.— (Ringwood, Hants).

The Scientific Names of the Badger and the Common Vole.—In the list of British Mammals (ante, p. 97), by a slip the Badger was accidentally omitted, although a passing reference to it as one of the animals for which Scomber-scomber names were necessary was made on p. 99. As is there indicated, its technical name should be Meles meles, based on Linnseus's "Ursus meles," instead of the current but incorrect Meles taxus,