141 



NOTES ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 

 ZOOLOGY. 



MAMMALIA. 



Otters in Essex. — Dr. Laver remarks in his Mammals, &■:., of Essex that 

 " this animal is not as uncommon in Essex as in years gone by, when there 

 seemed every probabiUty that the otter would become quite extinct in this 

 county." The increase of otters may be credited, judaiing from the many 

 references to their occurrence in our volumes for the last eight or ten years. 

 But they are frequently shot or otherwise killed in the most ruthless manner. 

 In March an otter was shot in the saltings near the " Leavingo " at Tolles- 

 bury. It was a fine male, measuring 4 feet from the snout to the tip of the 

 tail. A few weeks before a female was shot in the same place. On May loth 

 another " noble sportsman ' of Sible Hedingham, shot three otters, two yonng 

 ones and their mother, in the wash-way of the river there. "The animals 

 were playing in the water when they were observed." Not content with 

 sposmodic slaughter, other " sportsmen " (male and female) must needs establish 

 otter hounds, and we read of a hunt in the Blackwater in April, when one 

 was found at Little Braxted Mill ; again at Shalford in September the hounds 

 killed a dog otter weight 22lbs. A few days after one was hunted at Passing- 

 ford Bridge and lost, but afterwards another was killed weighing ajlbs. If 

 these otter hunts are encouraged, we may soon bid goodbye to Lutra vulgaris 

 in Essex. It is difficult to realize what satisfaction can be found in thus 

 deliberately exterminating one of the most interesting denizens of the county. 

 Truly 



" Satan finds some mischief still 

 For idle hands to do ! " 



A White Fox near Billericay. — In the Essex Union country there is at 

 the present time a freak in the shape of a snow-white fox. This is one of a 

 litter of four (the other three being of a normal colour) which were bred in 

 Norsey Wood, an extensive woodland near Billericay. During the summer 

 months the keeper had on three occasions seen this cub in the covert, which 

 was drawn on Oct. 14, for the first time this season. The white cub was soon 

 en evidence, and was viewed by several of the field a= he crossed the rides. 

 There being no scent, however, nothing could be done Probably you or 

 some of your readers may have heard of other instances of white foxes in 

 England ; but the only authentic case I know of is that mentioned by Colonel 

 Meysey-Thompson in his book published last year, in which he narrates how 

 a white fox was hunted and eventually killed by the York and Ainsty Hounds 

 during the late Sir Charles Slingsby's mastership. — E. T. Mashiter, M.F.H., 

 in the Field, October 21st, 1S99. [The Editor of the Field adds that several 

 instances of white foxes in England have been reported from time to time. 

 See the Zoologist for 1886, pp. 104 and 331, and 1891, p. 333 ; and the Field of 

 Nov. 5, 1898. 



The Porpoise [Phocana communis) in the Thames. — According to the 

 London Standard, much interest was excited shortly before 11 o'clock on the 

 morning of September 13th, 1899, among persons passing over Blackfriars 



