27 



March 23, 1847. 

 William Yanell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 The following Communications were read : — 



1. Note on the Beeeding of the Otter in confinement in the 

 ZooLOGiCAL Gardens, Regent's Park, IN 1846. By James 

 HuNT, Head Keeper. 



The female Otter was presented to the Society by Lady Rolle on 

 the 4th of February 1840, being apparently at that time about three 

 months old. She remained without a malė till the llth of March 

 1846, when a large male \vas presented to the Society by the Rev. 

 P. M. Brunwin, of Braintree, Essex, in Avhose possession it had been 

 for some months, and had been kept in a cellar. His \veight -vvhen 

 first taken was 21 Ibs., but he was not above half that weight when 

 he arrived at the Gardens, having \vasted much in confinement and 

 become very \veak in the loins, from •vvhich he soon recovered after 

 his arrival. About a month after his arrival there was a continual 

 chatlering between him and the female during the night, which lasted 

 for four or five nights ; but they did not appear to be quarrelling. 

 Nothing further was observed in their manners or in the appearance 

 of the female to make me thiiik she -vvas with young, until the morn- 

 ing of the 13th of August, when the keeper that has the charge of 

 thera went to give theni a fresh bed, vvhich he does once a veek ; 

 •while in the act of pulling out the old bed he observed tvvo young 

 ones, apparently five or six days old, and about the size of a fuU- 

 grown rat : he immediately put back the bed, with the young on it, 

 and left them. On the 21st the mother removed them to the second 

 sleeping-den, at the other end of their enclosure, and several times 

 after she was observed to remove them from one end of the house to 

 the other, by pushing them before her on a little straw ; her object in 

 removing them appeared to be to let them have a dry bed : on the 

 9th of September they \vere first seen out of the house ; they did not 

 go into the -vvater, but crawled about, and appeared very feeble. 



On the 26th of September they were first seen to eat fish, and 

 follow the mother into the water : they did not dive into the \vater 

 likę the mother, but \vent into it likę a dog, with their head above 

 vvater ; and it was not until the middle of October that they \vere 

 observed to plunge into the \vater likę the old ones. On the 22nd 

 of December the water was let out of the jjond for the purpose of 

 cleaning it, which is done once a week : the animals \vere shut up 

 in their sleeping-den, but they let themselves out when the pond was 

 but half-full of M'ater, and the young ones got into it and were not 

 able to get out without assistance ; after they had been in the water 



No. CLXX. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



