ON THE WINTER BREEDING OF THE OTTER. 251 



" apparently not three weeks old," on November 17th, thus 

 expresses himself, " I have often fancied that the Otter breeds 

 at various seasons, and not regularly, like most wild animals." 

 Probably, had he given more attention to this subject, he would 

 have found that the irregularity, although remarkable, was not 

 so great as he seems to have supposed. 



On analyzing the above records, I find that of the forty-eight 

 instances mentioned, forty-two may be considered quite reliable, 

 and six must be classed as doubtful. Of the former nine must 

 be referred to the month of January, eight to February, one to 

 April, one to July, two to August, one to September, seven to 

 October, four to November, and nine to December. The six 

 doubtful cases are thus distributed : — March, one ; May, one ; 

 June, one ; July, one ; October, one ; and November, one. There 

 are forty instances of the birth of young ones between September 

 and February (both inclusive), two of which only are doubtful, 

 and eight between March and August, four of which must be 

 considered doubtful ; that is to say, the records are not sufficiently 

 exact for the period of birth to be fixed with certainty. 



I have here endeavoured to state as impartially as possible the 

 facts which have come to my knowledge upon this subject, and 

 I believe I am justified in arriving at the conclusion that the 

 Otter breeds in autumn and winter, but more often in winter ; and 

 that litters in the spring are very rare, one solitary instance only 

 having come under my own observation, that being in the month 

 of April. I have found reliable statistics very difficult to obtain, 

 the bulk of those recorded being, for some reason or other, too 

 inexact for my purpose ; and the twenty-three cases analyzed at 

 the commencement of this paper, which have all more or less 

 come under my personal observation, extend over a period of 

 thirty-seven years, during which time I have notes of the 

 particulars of the occurrence of more than two hundred Otters 

 in Norfolk alone ; but of late years I have not kept up my notes 

 very diligently. 



