THE ZOOLOGIst—APprIL, 1872. 3017 
forth: the number of young at a birth; the situation selected, and whether 
a nest is prepared for the reception of the young. One instance has come 
to my knowledge on reliable authority, in which a nest was formed in the 
shape of a mound, consisting of about a cart-load of rushes, &c., with holes 
at top and sides: in the centre of this the young were placed. I have reason 
to believe that the otter rarely has young later than February or March, 
and seldom more than three at a litter, also that aquatic birds sometimes 
form a part of their food. Any precise and authentic information will be 
acceptable-—Thomas Southwell; Earlham Road, Norwich. 
SS 
Ornithology of Dartmoor.— Although I have no fact of any importance to 
relate, the account of the bird life to be seen on Dartmoor in the beginning 
of the month of March may be interesting to the readers of the « Zoologist.’ 
The matchless tonic supplied by the invigorating moor air tempted me to 
give a couple of days, about the date I have mentioned, to a walk on the 
peaty wilds of our largest English forest. Peewits and golden plovers were 
in abundance ; the former were evidently paired and contemplating nesting. 
The latter were flying restlessly from one tor to another in large flocks, and 
would not come near, although the keeper I was with whistled in most 
seductive plover tones. Large parties of fieldfares rose chattering from the 
splashy ground, and were hailed almost as strangers, the extreme mildness 
of the winter having occasioned them no necessity to frequent the enclosed 
orchard grounds and meadows of the lowlands. A few curlews were noticed, 
and had doubtless just arrived from the coast in search of eligible nesting 
quarters. Snipe were numerous in their usual favourite bogs, and their 
drumming in the air was heard throughout the day, imparting a weird 
characteristic to the scenery. ‘Those we sprung were in pairs, and were, 
I imagined, nesting. Jacks were plentiful in places, and seemed to be 
collecting in little parties preparatory to their departure. There is one fact 
in writing of the Ornithology of Dartmoor which is worth mentioning, and 
that is the scarcity of birds in the dreary centre of the forest. I remember 
one hot summer day walking across the moor to Cranmere Pool, and for the 
last three miles not a single bird was visible, not a meadow pipit seen. 
Throughout the year very few birds are to be met with in these cheerless 
solitudes ; plovers, snipe, partridges, are all found in largest numbers on the 
edges of the forest. I recollect one day, towards the end of October, seeing 
all the ordinary British thrushes in the course of a morning’s walk. 
Fieldfares and redwings had just arrived, and we found the former in large 
‘flocks on the bogs, where their scent made my setters try my patience by 
drawing on them and pointing them, and the latter in the hedges as I 
climbed the hill to the moor. Dippers were startled on each mountain 
streamlet. Thrushes, blackbirds and missel thrushes were plentiful 
