592 Otters, Rats, 



ford, — I was rather surprised to see, last winter (1832), which 

 was a remarkably mild one, a stoat (Mustela erminea) which 

 had donned its snowy garb. I had never seen a white one 

 here before. — A. Clifford, Near Stamford, \_Received Dec. 

 13. 1833.] 



The Otter domesticated in a Degree, and employed by Man in 

 capturing Fish, — " We passed, to my surprise, a row of no 

 less than nine or ten large and very beautiful otters, tethered 

 with straw collars and long strings to bamboo stakes on the 

 bank (of the Matta Colly). Some were swimming about at 

 the full extent of their strings, or lying half in and half out of 

 the water ; others w^ere rolling themselves in the sun, on the 

 sandy bank, uttering a shrill whistling noise, as if in play. I 

 was told that most of the fishermen in this neighbourhood 

 kept one or more of these animals, who were almost as tame 

 as dogs, and of great use in fishing ; sometimes driving the 

 shoals into the nets, sometimes bringing out the larger fish 

 with their teeth. I was much pleased and interested with the 

 sight. It has always been a fancy of mine that the poor crea- 

 tures whom we waste and prosecute to death, for no cause 

 but the gratification of our cruelty, might, by reasonable 

 treatment, be made the sources of abundant amusement and 

 advantage to us. The simple Hindoo shows here a better 

 taste and judgment than half the otter-hunting and badger- 

 baiting gentry of England." (Bishop Heber,) 



[For information on the habits of the otter, wild in Britain, 

 see p. 507, 508. 538. A fine otter was killed on Jan. 1. 

 1828, in the old river Deben, at Letheringham, after seven 

 hours' hunt by a bull terrier and a spaniel : its weight was 

 29 lbs. ; length, 4 ft. 2 in. ; girth of neck, 1 ft. 2 in. ; pads, or 

 feet, 3 in. wide. {Bury and Norwich Post, Jan. 9. 1828.) ] 



Perforation of a Leaden Pipe by Rats (455). — E. S. has 

 been, surely, too inattentive to proportions : there is an in- 

 consistency in the dimensions of " a leaden pipe about 1^ in. 

 in external diameter, with a bore of about j in. in diameter ; 

 thus leaving a solid circumference of metal varying from J in. 

 to fin. in thickness." (p. 455.)— J". R- Sept. 1834. 



[_Rats mil pass under Water upon the Mud at the Bottom of the 

 Water, — I have seen several instances of this, not in the water 

 rat or water campagnol only, but some in the field rat as 

 well. The instance which I more particularly remember re- 

 lates to two or three of the latter kind of rat, which had shel- 

 tered among the large roots, &c., of a couple of elm trees 

 which were growing beside a watercourse, of, say, about 10 ft. 

 wide. The rats, on being disturbed in the elms, crossed the 

 stream beneath the water, and were both visible in their 



