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LOCAL JOTTINGS.— No. 8. 

 DORCH ESTER— DORSETSHIRE. 



BY JOIiy GARLAND^ ESQ., MEMB : ENT: SOC:, MEMB: WEUN : CLUB. 



77te Otter, (Lutra vulgaris.) — This mischievous little animal has I believe 

 seldom, if ever, before been known to be in this neighbourhood; but the fish 

 having of late rapidly disappeared from that part of the River Froome, near 

 Loud's Mill, Fordington, it was suspected that Otters were located near. All 

 doubt is now at an end; for in November last, on a morning after a hard 

 frost, a gentleman, a friend of mine, was called out by his servant, and with 

 him distinctly traced the run of an Otter. At the edge of the river they 

 paw his footsteps clearly marked, and the impression of his body, showing even 

 the tail distinctly marked, where he had lain and eate i a fish he had taken. 

 The scales and a part of the gills of the trout had been left there. It is 

 supposed that a considerable number are between this town and Woodsford. 



IVie Swift, (Cypselus apus.) — As I always think that the greater corrobo- 

 ration of any particular fact connected with Natural History the better, I 

 state the following in my Jottings: — Mr. Wilson, I observe by the January 

 number of '"The Naturalist," vol. iii., page 21, speaks to having seen some of 

 these birds so late as the 26th. of August last. Now I find a note in my 

 diary made of my observation of two or three of these birds on the 24th. of 

 August last. Are not the departures of many birds of late years very much 

 delayed in comparison with former years? Is not the gradually increasing greater 

 mildness of the seasons of late the cause of this? It is surely worth inquiry. 



The Swallow-tail Butterfly, (Papilio Machaon.) — 'This interesting and elegant 

 butterfly is, I believe, rarely met with in the west of England, and indeed 

 I can find no mention of any others having been taken in Dorset than those 

 referred to in the Rev. F. 0. Morris's "History of British Butterflies." It is 

 there stated that J. C. Dale, Esq. took twelve specimens at Glanville's Wootton . 

 in three days, about thirty years ago. Mr. Dale also informs me that once 

 before that he took twenty-eight P. Machaons in one day in Hants. I therefore 

 think it worthy of mention that in the month of July, just nine years since, 

 I saw a large butterfly, which I could not make out, disporting itself on the 

 Down, close to the two-mile stone, on the old Sherborne Road, in the parish 

 of Charminster. I fortunately succeeded in taking it, and to my surprise and 

 pleasure discovered it to be one of the above. It is very prettily marked, 

 and I have it now, as may be imagined, carefully preserved in my cabinet. 



Tlie Primrose, (Primula vulgaris.) — Evidencing the progress of the seasons 

 here, I gathered a large number of these early harbingers of spring, and also 

 some of the Snowdrop, {Galanthus nivalis,)- growing wild in a copse at Upcerne, 

 in this county, on Monday, the 14th. instant; and on Sunday, the 20th. instant, 

 found, for the first time this season, some of the modest Wild Violet,_(Fio7a 

 odorata.) on a bank at Froome, near this town. /^^^^^^'^^P'^ 



Dorchester, March 2Sth., 18o3. 

 vol,, in. 



