176 



NOTES— ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Otters in the Essex Salt-marshes. — In the local journals of Oct. ist, 

 igoi, a paragraph concerning the capture of an otter was headed with the 

 sensational line " SeaOtter in the Blackwater." "In the river Blackvvater on 

 Friday, not far from where the shark was recently captured, a Mersea fisher- 

 man named Reuben Mussett shot a sea otter, a creature never known to have 

 been brought ashore before in the neighbourhood. It is a capital specimen, 

 turning the scale at 27lbs." We allude to this mainly as an excuse for insert- 

 ing an extract from a letter of Dr. Layer's written at the time : — " The ' sea 

 otter ' was a very fine specimen, 4fi. lin. long, a male, and was shot on the 

 ooze or saltings at Tollesbury. The skin has been preserved by Pettitt for 

 Mr. Stuart- Wortley, of Orleans Cottage, West Mersea. It had been no doubt 

 living on Tollesbury Marshes and in the habit of making excursions into the 

 tide-way. I dare say you are aware that tliere are now otters on nearly all 

 the marshes round the coast. This is as it was in the early years of 1800, 

 when the otter was a very common beast. I am glad to say that there is a 

 prospect of this interesting animal again being much more abundant than it 

 was some years ago." 



Capture of a Porbeagle Shark (Lamna cornubica) near Tollesbury. 

 In the ii55(',v Herald for October ist, 1901, the capture of a shark was reported 

 as follows: — 'On Tuesday afternoon, when the Tollesbury fishermen were 

 returning home, a shark was seen swimming near the Naas End. Several 

 attempts were made to capture it, and William Lewis, jun., accompanied by 

 William Lewis, sen., and Garrod, succeeded in getting a noose over his head 

 and fixing it in his gills. He was towed for some distance to the landing 

 stage at the ' Leavings,' frequently turning on his back ready for battle. 

 When dragged upon the mud the shark went through many frantic evolutions, 

 but was at length killed. There is an abundant supply of fish in the Black- 

 water just now, and the shark is supposed to have followed them. The fish 

 was 6ft. loin. in length, and was on exhibition at Tollesbury on Tuesday 

 evening. On Wednesday his captors tried their fortune as showmen by taking 

 the shark to Maldon for exhibition." Dr. Laver wrote to us respecting this 

 fish: — " The shark you mentioned is now at Ambroses, the Bird-Stuffer's. I 

 have seen it to-day ; it is 7ft. 3iu. long, and it is an example of the Porbeagle 

 Shark [Lamna corimbica) as you suggested." 



Pomatias elegans in a living state near Wormingford.— Dr. H. 

 Laver has kindly forwarded to us a letter recently received from Mr. George 

 T. Rope in which the writer says : — " I have not your list of the Mollusca of 

 the Colchester district by me just now, bat as far as I can recollect Cyclostoma 

 [Pomatias) elegans is not included. Having met with this species last autumn 

 at or near Wormingford, I thought it might possibly interest you to know of 

 it. On the 8th of last September (1901) I came upon several ' dead shells ' at 

 a spot which I have no doubt you know, about two miles or so from Bures. 

 A.nd with them was a single specimen of Helix (Helicella) ericetormn and 



