NOTKS TO THE 



would have exceeded that of any other I ever saw. Many otters 

 have been taken in our Broad district, near the same river and 

 its tributary streams, which appear to be their favourite resort. 

 A fine specimen of about 201b. was skated down on Ormesby 

 Broad a few days since, and inflicted a very severe wound on 

 the hand of one of its captors, who got hold of the beast's tail. 

 The marshy district in the valley of the Waveney, and especially 

 near Fritton and Oulton Broads, is also a favourite habitat of 

 the otter. The largest authenticated specimen I find recorded is 

 one of 271b. weight, and 3 ft. 8 in. long. These interesting ani- 

 mals, owing to drainage and improved cultivation, are every year 

 becoming more and more scarce in old England." 



I at once set to work to cast this otter in plaster, having posed 

 him in a graceful attitude. The cast turned out a very great 

 success, every hair being shown, and the natural expression of 

 the face wonderfully preserved. The casting of large animals in 

 plaster is quite a new idea, and I beg to claim it as my own. 

 I am not afraid of others doing this because they do not know 

 the modus operandi ; long experience and practice have taught 

 me. This grand otter measured 4 ft. 3 in. from the tip of nose to 

 the end of tail, the tail being 1 ft. 3 in. long ; his weight was 

 271b. 



When dissecting the body of the beast, I discovered what 

 I believe to be a new fact as regards the oesophagus, 

 or gullet. Holding up the pharynx I poured down thin 

 plaster into the stomach, which, of course, hardened, showing 

 its full capacity ; it is 9| inches long and 15 inches round, and 

 would hold rather over three pints of fluid. The oesophagus is 

 19 inches long, and, strange to say, is a very small tube, the size 

 of a half-inch gas-pipe, or about the size of one's little finger, 

 and only one inch and three quarters round. I expected to find 

 it a large dilatable tube, as in other fish-eating creatures. The 

 best explanation that 1 can give of this curiously small oeso- 

 phagus is that the otter chops up his food very small with his 

 formidable teeth before he eats it. I had a bit of this otter 

 cooked. When boiled, the flesh is of a brown colour, like cold 

 boiled beef, and the flavour by no means despicable. I oifered to 

 send a slice in a letter to anybody who would like to taste it. 

 Nobody accepted my offer. This cast is now in my museum 

 at South Kensington. 



WEATHER AND MIGRATIONS, p. 105. In confirmation of White's 

 statement on this point I learn from Davy, the bird-catcher, 

 that birds have sense and knowledge to keep in the south 

 of England if their food is not ready for them at their breeding- 



