NOVEMBEB 27, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



773 



mated in numbers as to have been excluded 

 from such a list. In 1835* E. Hitchcock in- 

 cluded it in his list of Massachusetts mam- 

 mals, without any reservations, from which 

 fact we may infer that if not abundant it was 

 yet fairly common. In 1840' E. Emmons 

 wrote : " The otter is still an inhabitant of 

 our waters, but, from its shyness, watchfulness 

 and aquatic habits, is rarely seen and still 

 more rarely captured." In 1861,° however, 

 E. A. Samuels referred to the otter as " once 



A. Allen wrote of the otter as " not rare ; still 

 not often captured," and stated that during 

 the ten preceding years some half dozen had 

 been taken near Springfield. 



Eecords are not at hand for later years up 

 to the winter of 1905-6. During that season 

 a party fishing through the ice at an ox-bow 

 of the Connecticut River one half mile north 

 of Hatfield caught an otter. In the confusion 

 following this unexpected catch the creature 

 escaped. In the succeeding autumn another 



quite common," but "now nearly extermi- 

 nated, one in two or three years being about 

 the greatest number captured." He reported 

 a specimen killed that season near Marlbor- 

 ough, Middlesex County, and another at Pal- 

 mer, Hampden County. Eight years later* J. 



^ Report on Geology, Mineralogy, Botany and 

 Zoology of Massachusetts, 1835, p. 526. 



"Report on Quadrupeds of Massachusetts, 1840, 

 p. 48. 



° Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1861, Part I., 

 p. 160. 



* " Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetts, 

 with a Critical Revisrion of the Species," Bull. 

 Mus. Comp. Zool., Cambridge, 1869, p. 178. 



fine specimen, a male, was taken in the town 

 of North Hadley, just across the river from 

 Hatfield, from a mill pond in a creek known 

 locally as " Mill River." A few months later 

 still another specimen, an old male, was taken 

 from this pond. The skeleton and mounted 

 skin of this animal are now in the Massa- 

 chusetts mammal collection at the Agricul- 

 tural College. Shortly afterwards a third 

 male was caught from this pond. The trap 

 had been set at the " playground " of the 

 animals. Tracks have frequently been seen 

 near " Fort River," a few miles south of 

 " Mill River," and in a mill pond of this 

 stream, another was trapped in the winter of 



