6 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



In Nov. 1885, Mr. Gow, gamekeeper at Dalnaspidal, in Perth- 

 shire, came upon the track of an Otter in the newly -fallen snow 

 by the side of a mountain stream. Having his gun with him, he 

 followed the trail in the hope of falling in with the Otter. After 

 proceeding a short distance, the tracks left the water-side, and 

 showed where the animal had made a bound and caught an old 

 cock Grouse. Returning to the stream, it had crossed on to a rock 

 in the centre of the water, where it deposited its prey. To those 

 acquainted with the feeding peculiarities of the Otter, it will not 

 be surprising to learn that it did not finish the bird at its nocturnal 

 meal, but left well-nigh one-half of the Grouse upon the rock. 

 Mr. Gow, after examining the remaining portion of the Grouse, 

 followed the track of the Otter up stream until it terminated in a 

 deep moss-hole, where the object of his pursuit had gone to 

 ground. Having no terrier with him, and as the day was closing, 

 he set to work, and with stones stopped the hole as firmly as the 

 circumstances would admit of. Returning early the following 

 morning with his gun and terriers, he found to his mortification 

 that the Otter had scraped a new hole and escaped, while a fresh 

 fall of snow had obliterated its tracks. 



Another correspondent informed us that while walking along 

 the bank of a stream in Scotland, he found the unconsumed 

 remains of a Mallard which had been killed and partially eaten 

 by an Otter.* 



Mr. F. H. Salvin reports that Otters also kill and eat Rabbits; 

 and this is confirmed by Mr. T. Speedy, who, writing from The 

 Inch, Edinburgh, 17th Dec. 1885, says: — 



"Many years ago, when trapping Rabbits in a hedgerow on the bank 

 of a small, sluggish brook on the Ladykirk estate, I was much annoyed by 

 tindiug that for several consecutive mornings a number of Rabbits were 

 dragged out of the traps and carried off by some animal. As no traces of 

 either the depredator or the Rabbits were discoverable, I naturally con- 

 cluded it was the work of some wild animal, but of what sort I could not 

 determine. As there were no fish of any description in the ditch, the idea 

 of Otters never entered my head. Determined to find out the thief, I made 

 an artificial hole in the bank, and set the strongest-spriuged trap I could 

 find, using a rabbit split up as bait. On the following morning I was not 

 a little surprised to find a large dog Otter secured, which measured 3 ft. 

 10 in. from point of nose to tip of tail." 



* For further instances of Otters killing Wildfowl see 'The Field, 

 81st May, 1873. 



