NOTES AND QUERIES. 155 



successfully reared. On March 23rd and 24:th, Otters, weighing 

 eleven and ten pounds respectively, were caught at a certain point 

 in the river, possibly both of one litter, male and female ; I saw the 

 latter, which was the heavier of the two. 



Salmon. — The flooded state of the river last autumn and winter 

 was favourable to the ascent of spawning fish, and this season the 

 "fresh run" examples are rewarding the patient anglers to some 

 extent. I believe Salmon caught in the Avon, although much fewer 

 in number than those taken in the rivers farther north, are, as a 

 rule, heavier fish, and this season, thus far, has been no exception. 

 Several good fish from 20 lb. to 30 lb. were taken, and two of 40 lb. 

 weight yielded to the attraction of the fly ; and I was informed of a 

 curious incident happening at the capture of one of the latter, the 

 blade of the gaff snapping asunder, but the expert angler played his 

 quarry so long and dexterously that another gaff was secured from a 

 considerable distance off, and the fish eventually brought to bank 

 after much excitement and " language." — G. B. Coebin (Kingwood, 

 Hants). 



ANNELIDA. 



Dutrochet's Land Leech. — Two Leeches were found under a box 

 of bulbs which was let six inches deep into the earth in a garden in 

 Penge, rather less than one mile from Selhurst Eoad, and sent to 

 Mr. W. A. Harding, of Histon Manor, Cambridgeshire, who identified 

 them as Trocheta subviricUs (Dutrochet, 1817). They were found 

 in the beginning of February (or possibly end of January), 1911, by 

 a gardener, who described them as of a very beautiful green colour, 

 very firm and fat when first found, and one swallowed an earthworm 

 whole.— F. NoEGATE (20, Anerley Park, S.E.). 



The Leeches found by your correspondent at Penge are examples 

 of Dutrochet's Land Leech, Trocheta subviridis (Dutrochet, 1817). 

 This rare and curious form is met with from time to time, sometimes 

 in considerable numbers ; its occurrence, however, is always well 

 worth recording, for we know little of its mode of life, or of the 

 factors which determine its somewhat sporadic appearances. The 

 fact that the first specimen noted in England was taken in Eegent's 

 Park (in 1850), and that more than one Leech found in the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens has been attributed, erroneously it has since appeared, 

 to this species, not unnaturally suggested the idea that it had been 

 accidentally introduced into the Zoological Gardens along with some 

 tropical animal. It is, however, not a tropical species ; its range as 



