250 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the river Soar, in "the spring of 1817," also two other young 

 ones at Loughborough in the month of March, 1884, but the 

 circumstances are not sufficiently exact in either instance to be 

 of much service for my purpose. I therefore omit them from 

 my summary. 



Again, in the volume for 1886, p. 67, Mr. A. P. Morris 

 records the finding of three newly-born Otters (40) by some 

 sedge-cutters on October 8th, 1884, near Salisbury; also the 

 capture of a young one (41), which he conjectures would be four 

 or five months old, on March 21st, 1885. He adds that on 

 another occasion, in the month of November, three young ones 

 (42) were found in a nest in a faggot-heap and killed, " because 

 they were too young to keep." The same writer states that in 

 the month of October two young males (43*) were procured, 

 weighing " above 4 lbs." each, and in November two others (44*), 

 of about the same weight ; these, if the weight is correctly given, 

 would probably be about four months old, but the record is 

 indefinite. One more instance of the "finding of very young 

 Otters occurs in 'The Zoologist' for 1887. It is there stated 

 that two of these animals (45), newly-born, were found under the 

 floor of a boat-house in Hampshire on August 14th, 188G ; but 

 an even earlier instance is reported in ' The Field' for August 7th, 

 1880, where it is stated that a young Otter (46), evidently newly- 

 born, was found on the banks of the river Cocker on July 26th. 

 On the other hand, I may mention that an equally infantile Otter 

 (47) is stated in ' Land and Water,' December 18th, 1880, to have 

 been found on the banks of the river Dunsup (Yorkshire) on 

 November 17th. 



An old marshman at Stalham Fen, who has spent the whole of 

 a long life amongst the haunts of the Otter, assured me that very 

 young Otters are frequently met with in February, and that the 

 old female when heavy with young will leave the trail of her belly 

 as she crosses the snow, and by this they know that the young 

 must be produced very early. This man told me that a litter 

 was once found there of five young ones— the only instance 

 I know of more than four being produced at a birth. 



As an example of the absence of exact information with 

 regard to the breeding of this animal in a good observer and 

 sportsman, I may quote Charles St. John, who, in his ' Natural 

 History and Sport in Moray,' upon finding young Otters (48), 



