The Place of the Otter in Zoology. 7 



ever, is to the effect that young of a similar age 

 have been found in every month of the year; and 

 that, despite the ingenious theory advanced by the 

 writer of the contribution on " The Otter and his 

 Ways" in the Badminton volume on " Hunting," 

 is now (and I think rightly) the accepted opinion. 

 Personally I have seen cubs in Inverness-shire in 

 August, in December, and in February, of the 

 same size (and presumably of the same age) as 

 cubs found in the New Forest in May and June. 

 It has been held by some that more young Otters 

 are produced in spring and early summer than 

 during the rest of the year; but that may only be 

 because during the hunting season there are greater 

 opportunities of seeing them than in autumn and 

 winter. 



With regard to the question of albinism in 

 Otters, I was astonished to read in the Field for 

 March 30th, 1907, over the initials '' R. B. L." 

 the singularly ill-informed statement that he had 

 '' no record of a purely white Otter ever having 

 been killed in this country." Apart from the very 

 definite and well -authenticated account given in the 

 Badminton volume on '' Hunting " by the Rev. 

 E. W. L. Davies — who, in the presence of Mr. 

 Edward A. Sanders and his tenant Coker, a 

 farmer at Brimpts, on Dartmoor, saw and ulti- 

 mately killed ''a beautiful cream-coloured Otter" 



