Sucklers. 9429 



Otters in Middlesex. — In compliance with your wish, I have endeavoured to col- 

 lect all the information possible regarding the otters which hare been killed at various 

 limes in this county, and which I have before alluded to (Zool. 9155). I am now en- 

 abled, with the assistance of ray friend Mr. Bond, to send you some further particulars 

 respecting them. In the spring of 1829, I believe in the month of March, a young 

 otter, probably about eight months old, was killed at Kilburn, in a bricb-field which 

 is now the site of , the railway station. In the autumn of 1831 an otter haunted the 

 Brent, where the head of Kingsbury Reservoir now is. The Reservoir was not then 

 formed, and at that particular spot there was a famous bed of flags, well calculated to 

 aflford shelter to an otter. About the end of September or beginning of October this 

 otter was shot by a sporting butcher, who declared afterwards that, as it moved 

 through the cover, he mistook it for a hare. A third otter was seen for several months 

 during the autumn of 1847, about the brook between Hendon and Edgeware, and was 

 several times hunted by the harriers of Mr. Dancer, of Kenton, but, I believe, was 

 never killed. A fourth, which was described as a very fine, large animal, was 

 observed early one morning, by a policeman on duty, crossing the park belonging to 

 Lord Mansfield at Hampstead, and making for the water. It was subsequently seen 

 by Mr. Ward, jun., of Millfield Lane, Hampstead, and several other persons, some of 

 whom laid in wait to try and shoot it, but did not succeed : this was in the spring of 

 1855. One of the most extraordinary places that I have heard of, in which to find an 

 otter, was Aberdeen Place, leading from Maida Hill to St. John's Wood. Early in 

 the morning, on the 25th of March, 1863, a coachman was proceeding to his stables 

 in St. John's Wood, when he observed an otter trotting along close to the wall, and, 

 overtaking it, he succeeded, by repeated kicks on the head with his heavy boots, in 

 killing it. It was then taken to Mr. Gardner, of Holborn, for preservation, and I 

 heard of it the following day. If this was not an escaped specimen, T can only account 

 for its appearance in such a place by supposing that the animal had come up the 

 canal to Maida Hill, and, being unwilling to follow the water under the canal bridge, 

 or, more properly speaking, through the tunnel, had taken to land, and was following 

 the course of the water above ground, and would probably have entered the canal again 

 in Regent's Park if unmolested. The last otter killed in this county, as far as I can 

 learn, was the one killed in May last at Kingsbury Reservoir. As I have before staled 

 (Zool. 9155), it was surprised in some long grass near the water, and, after a severe 

 struggle, was killed with the aid of a powerful dog. It is conjectured that all the.se 

 animals, with the exception of the one killed at Maida Hill, must have come up the 

 Brent from the Thames. I shall be glad if any correspondent can add any further 

 particulars or observations upon this interesting subject. — J. Edmund Harting ; 

 Kingsbury, Middlesex, November 11,1 864. 



Oilers near Salisbury.— On the 15lh of November I obtained a female otter in the 

 flesh ; it weighed nine pounds, and appeared to be about half-grown : a person named 

 Downer killed it in a meadow near Charlton, a village four miles to the south of 

 Salisbury ; he discovered it towards the close of the day, in a drain or small water- 

 course, and, with the aid of a dog which accompanied him, after a chase of ten 

 minutes he succeeded in capturing it. I had another brought to me by Downer on 

 the 8th of this month (December), which he killed close to the spot where he captured 

 the former : this one is also a female, but weighs only seven pounds. On the 8ih of 

 November an old female otter was trapped in the same locality, near the adjoining 

 village of Britford ; it weighed thirteen and a half pounds, and from the circumstance 



