OTTERS— LEOPARD 141 



with a fish in his mouth and hind feet and tail sticking 

 up out of the water. 



The size of fish that otters can tackle is very surprising. 

 On Ziro Isle, in 1919, I saw the remains of a very large 

 Silurid fish, which had evidently been dragged up on to a 

 rock high above water by one or more otters which had 

 eaten all except the shoulders and the large flat bony head, 

 measuring 12 by 9 inches. This part that remained was 

 taken to camp, and was found to weigh twenty pounds ! 

 So the fish, which the natives called " Akasonzi," would 

 probably have weighed forty pounds at least. It was 

 the largest one the natives had ever seen. 



The otters in Kingsley's Water Babies are described as 

 making a queer chorus of squealing noises, but I never 

 heard a sound that could be ascribed to an otter, even 

 at night, save when one comes up to breathe close by, 

 and emits a short grunt before diving again. 



Leopard. 



The larger carnivora were not met with on the islands 

 save for one exception. On Kibibi, in January 1919, fresh 

 spoor of a leopard was seen on the wet sand on two succes- 

 sive visits nearly a week apart. The leopard must have 

 swum from the coast of the mainland across at least 2| miles 

 of open water. (See map.) The spoor was seen very fresh 

 on both January 17th and 22nd, there having been heavy 

 rain between the two visits. So it would seem that the 

 animal was there all the time, although there cannot have 

 been much food for it. On Kibibi there are neither buck 

 nor monkej^s, and there are no game birds (save an 

 occasional bustard, quail, or forest francolin) on any island 

 that I have visited. Presumably the leopard managed to 

 catch fish or ate crabs that it found on the beach ! 



Mongoose. 

 Animals of the civet cat tribe ( Viverridae) were not often 



