70 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
caught in the immediate neighbourhood, a larger one, also a male of 16 lbs., 
being brought in about the same time, which had been trapped not far 
from our city ; and besides these another pair of young ones, a male and 
female, reached Mr. White’s hands not long after the others I have 
mentioned. Thus no less than eleven have been sent in for preservation, 
all more or less from our immediate neighbourhood, since the month of 
August last, which shows that they are still able to hold their own amongst 
us. Nay, their numbers are such that they are more likely to cause an 
irrational fear in weak minds, for on showing the young Otter which had 
been caught alive to one of my servants, and, at the same time, an old dog 
Fox, which had on the same day been picked up dead in the parish after a 
sharp run, she exclaimed, “ Lor, sir, I had no idea that there were such 
creatures about the place! I shall be really now afraid to go out after 
dark.”—Arruur P. Morres (Britford Vicarage, Salisbury). 
[We think it very much to be regretted that those in the position of our 
correspondent, whom we know to be an excellent naturalist, do not use their 
influence to check the indiscriminate slaughter which is going on of 
so-called rare animals. Anything more wanton than the destruction of 
Otters above described, especially of the young ones, which were killed 
‘because they were too young to keep,” it would be difficult to conceive. 
The irrational course adopted by those who pride themselves upon having 
helped to make a rare animal still rarer by killing every specimen they meet 
with, is to us inexplicable. We have no objection to Otters being hunted 
with hounds in a legitimate and sportsman-like manner, because then they 
have a chance for their lives in an element in which they are much more 
at home than their pursuers; but we do protest against their being 
slaughtered in cold blood, or shot at and wounded, whenever they show 
themselves; and especially do we protest. against the unfeeling destruction 
of the helpless young.—EDb. ] 
The Carnivora of Finland. — How great are still the numbers of 
carnivorous animals in Finland may be seen from the following figures, 
given in the last issue of the ‘ Statistical Yearbook’ for Finland :—In 1882 
not less than 85 bears, 128 wolves, 407 lynxes, 4005 foxes, 76 gluttons, 
240 river otters, 148 martens, 1583 ermines, and 8947 birds of prey were 
killed, for which the sum of £1646 was paid in premiums by the Government. 
The ravages occasioned by Carnivora the same year were immense ; they are 
estimated at 274 horses, 846 horned cattle, 5246 sheep, 168 pigs, 119 goats, 
1681 reindeer, and 2366 domestic fowls. The greatest number of bears were 
killed in Viborg and Uleaborg (respectively 33 and 30), whilst most wolves 
were killed in the more densely-peopled Government of Tavastehuus. 
Sowerby’s Whale on the Yorkshire Coast.— At the meeting of the 
British Association in September last Professor Turner read a paper on the 
