NOTES — ORIOINAI, AND SF.LECTED. I 23 



greater rarity of Testacella /la/iotoidea, Drap., has been confounded 

 with this species for a long time, though Sowerby described it as 

 distinct some seventy years ago. Much more recently, Mr. Charles 

 Ashford and Mr. J. W. Taylor showed that the two species were 

 distinct from an anatomical as well as an external point of view, but 

 it was at the same time owned that the specimen of the first species 

 was immature. This may have had something to do with the fact 

 that the distinctiveness has not even yet been universally recognised, 

 and the writer of the paper under consideration has thought it 

 necessary to endorse Mr. Taylor's opinions with regard to Testacella 

 sa/fitlinii, having examined a number of adult individuals of that 

 species."' 



The accompanying illustration is taken from the original drawings 

 made from nature by Mr. W. J. Webb for the plate in the 

 "Zoologist," the specimens having been taken at Buckhurst Hill by 

 Mr. H. C. Snell. 



NOTES-ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



Otters Breeding in the open near Brightlingsea. — Mr. John Bateman , 

 J. P., of Brightlingsea Hall, writes: "On August 23rd some .^cythemen were 

 cutting reeds in a shallow pool, or rathe low-lying marsh, artificially flooded, 

 and planted with reeds, at the back of Brightlingsea Hall (the water having been 

 let out on August 4th), when they laid bare an open nest made roughly of reeds 

 and so placed as to be just above the water level when the pool was full. In it 

 were several young otters about gin. long, and quite blind, one of which they 

 brought in. The colour was that of a young mouse, with nose ana ears pink, 

 and claws very sharp. We tried our best to keep it alive, but, in spite of warm 

 milk given many times a day, it died on the 26th. I have known several cases 

 (in Essex) of otters breeding in holes, but never in the open. The only fish 

 supply at hand would be eels — unless the old otters visited a salt water creek, 

 containing fiat fish and smelts, about half a mile distant." In a subsequent 

 letter Mr. Bateman says : " I think I saw the bitch otter, or her spouse, on the 

 Sunda}- after the 3'oung one's death, but could not be quite sure. Anyhow, we 

 have never re-discovered where she has laid the young up." — The editor of the 

 " Field" states that, considering the situation and the materials, it seems likely 

 that the old otter may have appropriated the nest of a moorhen. 



3 In a note in the "Zoologist" for .September, 1893, Mr. Webb gives some references not 

 included in his paper, and mentions Mr. W. E. Collinge's paper " On the Generative System in 

 the Genus Testacella," " Ann. Mag. N. H." vol. xii. (1893), p. 21, which bears out the statement 

 as to the distribution of Testacella scutuluin. 



