MAMMALS 



presence of a town of considerable size on 

 the banks of a river frequented by these 

 animals by no means prevents their passage 

 up and down stream. At Ipswich the curious 

 whistling call of the otter has been heard at 

 night, where the river Orwell passes through 

 the town. Mr. Hudson, the Ipswich taxider- 

 mist, who at the time had several otters in 

 his shop, informed the writer of a curious 

 incident which took place a short time before. 

 While the passenger steamer Merrimac was 

 lying at Ipswich, a man proceeding to clean 

 one of her paddle-boxes found an otter inside 

 it, which I am sorry to add he destroyed. In 

 the local museum there is a large otter 

 labelled ' Killed in Stoke Park,' which is just 

 outside the town. The Essex Otterhounds, 

 on 27 August 1902, killed three otters 

 near Stowmarket, weighing respectively 24, 

 15 and 7 lb. In May 1879 a fine male 

 entered one of the marsh draining mills on 

 the Minsmere level, where it was shot by 

 the man in charge of the mill. The marshes 

 in that neighbourhood are much frequented 

 by otters. On one occasion, close to a thick 

 plantation bordering upon these marshes, Mr. 

 A. M. Rope had in sight two of these animals 

 at the same moment and was able to watch 

 them for some time. In the spring of 1883 

 they seem to have been quite numerous in the 

 Waveney. Among others destroyed, a female 

 and her cubs were ' done to death ' near Bun- 

 gay. It seems indeed to be thought a heroic 

 and praiseworthy deed to take the lives of 

 these graceful creatures, whose presence so 

 greatly enhances the interest and attractive- 

 ness of the places they haunt. Otter cubs 

 are, as is well known, born at various seasons, 

 and not, like the young of most wild animals, 

 in the spring and summer only.' On 10 

 March 1885 two young otters were caught 

 in a farmyard at Stratford St. Andrew by 

 means of a running noose on the end of a 

 pole. They were at the time not quite half 

 grown, and were probably born during the 

 previous autumn. A small cub killed by a 

 dog on the Abbey farm at Snape on 5 De- 

 cember 1892 appeared to be then about eight 

 or nine weeks old. In severe winters, when 

 neither frogs, eels nor fish of any sort are any 

 longer to be had, the otter is forced to subsist 

 on whatever it can get, preying upon water- 

 hens, rabbits, etc. During the winter of 

 1891-2 near Leiston, Mr. A. M. Rope fol- 

 lowed the track of one of these animals in the 



snow, which left the river and led across 

 some fields. Here it appeared to have tried 

 to seize a hare in its seat, but only succeeded 

 in getting a mouthful of fiir. 



20. Common Seal. Phoca vitulina, Linn. 



Almost every year a few seals visit diflFerent 

 parts of the SufiFolk coast, sometimes enter- 

 ing the rivers in pursuit of their prey. The 

 Messrs. Paget refer to this animal as follows : 

 ' Occasionally has been seen in the Roads, or 

 been thrown upon the beach ; one weighing 

 14 stones killed March 1822. They seem 

 formerly to have been much more common.' 

 Mr. N. F. Hele,' writing thirty-six years later 

 than the Pagets, mentions the occurrence of 

 four seals at Aldeburgh and Thorpe, between 

 1863 and 1869. He remarks that: 'It is 

 probable that these animals come from the 

 north, and follow the shoals of herrings. In 

 every instance of capture or otherwise, the 

 seals have always appeared off Thorpe, to 

 northward of us, before arriving here.' Mr. 

 T. Southwell, in an article on the ' Mamma- 

 lia of Norfolk," has drawn attention to a 

 colony of these animals inhabiting sandbanks 

 in the Wash. It seems only reasonable to 

 suppose that those seen from time to time on 

 the coasts of Suffolk and Essex are wanderers 

 from these sandbanks. Two seals were ob- 

 served in the Stour, between Harwich and 

 Manningtree in 1854, one of which was 

 shot by a puntsman.* A beautiful specimen 

 lately on view at the shop of Mr. Hudson of 

 Ipswich had been shot in the Deben on 

 22 February 1902. For a very long period 

 these creatures have from time to time made 

 their appearance on the beach at Orford, 

 particularly about the shifting shingle at the 

 mouth of the river, and it is supposed by 

 some that the traditional ' wild man ' of 

 Orford, shut up for a time in the castle, was 

 in reality a seal. In November 1872 one of 

 these animals was observed several days in 

 succession in the river at Orford, sometimes 

 opposite the quay. On one occasion it was 

 seen with a fish in its mouth between the 

 quay and a vessel lying close by. According 

 to Mr. C. Rope of that town, the time that 

 seals most frequently make their appearance 

 there is from the latter part of November to 

 the end of December, but in 1902 two were 

 observed in July. One was seen at Felix- 

 stowe by a night watchman in October 

 1900 {East Anglian Daily Times, 22 October 



* Mr. Southwell's observations show this animal 

 to be, in Norfolk at least, a late autumn and winter 

 breeder. 



* Jottinp about Aldtburgb, N. F. Hele. 



* Trans. Norf. and Ntr. Nat. Sec. i. (i 870-1),. 



7«- 



* MammaBa ef Essex, H. Laver, F.L.S., p. 55. 



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