296 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



One of the molar teeth was carried to Colchester by Mr, J. Jackson, who took it 

 from the spot, in whose possession it now is ; it weighs seven pounds is of a 

 square form, and the grinding surface is studded with several zig-zag rows of 

 lamincc, which seem to denote that it belonged to a carnivorous animal. There 

 M'cre more teeth, which were unfortunately broken, one of which weighed twelve 

 ]:)Ounds. It is probable, that the tusks Avill be found by searching further into 

 the cliffs, or amongst the earth which has fiillen down. The above skeleton is 

 supoosed to belong to an animal of the same species as that called the mammoth , 

 remains of which have been found in North America, Great Tartary, etc." 



Food of the Otter. — There is an interesting Essex item 

 in an article entitled " In Defence of the Otter," in the Spectator 

 of April i6th, 1904. The writer, while admitting that otters are 

 decidedly mischievous on small preserved artificial pools, does 

 not think they do any appreciable harm in a river the size of the 

 lower Thames. Eels and chub appear to be their favourite food. 

 Among many remarks on the habits of otters, the following 



may be noted : — 



" On a fine lake in Essex, where a pair of otters live all the year round, they 

 seem to confine their fishing enterprises to bream and fresh-water mussels, though 

 probably eels are also largely eaten. They have regular dining places, where 

 they come ashore, and on tliese flat portions of the bank, generally in a plantation 

 which is kept quiet, as it is full of pheasants, the backbones, skulls and scales of 

 the big bream lie, as well as heaps of mussel-shells, cracked by the otters' 

 teeth." 



Porpoises in the Blackwater. — A shoal of porpoises was 

 driven ashore on Saturday morning, July 30, 1904, at West 

 Mersea, and local sportsman and others had quite an exciting 

 time chasing them. About half-a-dozen of the porpoises were 

 killed, but the rest got away to sea. 



BIRDS. 



Peregrine Falcon at Pitsea, Essex. — The following 

 are the particulars of-this bird, which was shown at the meeting 

 of the Club on February 13th, 1904 : — "On Saturday evening, 

 January 23rd, I came into my study from the parish, and was 

 surprised to find a large female Peregrine Falcon, evidently just 

 shot, being still warm, lying on the table. On enquiry I ascer- 

 tained that it had been shot by Mr. H. Brown, of Chalvedon 

 Hall, Pitsea. He was walking, with his gun, in one of their 

 fields as it was growing dusk, wlien a bird flew out of some trees 

 at a little distance from him ; in the uncertain light and from its 

 noisy manner of flying forth, he took it for a wood pigeon and 



