30 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Otters in the Hampshire Avon. — Twice during 1906 — viz. spring 

 and autumn — the Otter-hounds visited this neighbourhood, and, 

 although comparatively unsuccessful in their quest, as far as " kill- 

 ing " is concerned, it must not be supposed that Otters have become 

 scarce. Possibly the river is unsuitable for hunting, either from its 

 depth or width or currents, but for some reason best known to the 

 " craft " the waters of the Avon are not hunted, and it is the smaller 

 streams or brooks to which the " sport " is confined ; but the banks of 

 the main stream often bear unmistakable traces of the so-called " sly, 

 goose-footed prowler," and it is not long since two young. Otters — 

 larger than terriers — were caught in a garden near the river, and their 

 " holt " was discovered not far off underneath one of the bridges close 

 to Ringwood. During August and September I knew of three Otters 

 — two males and a female — having been either shot or trapped within 

 a mile of each other, the smallest weighing eighteen pounds, whilst the 

 largest turned the scale at twenty-seven pounds, and measured fifty- 

 one inches in length ; and on one occasion a duck-shooter, whilst 

 waiting in the " gloaming " for the evening flight, saw two large Otters 

 swimming and diving in the water only a few yards from him. A short 

 time ago a local newspaper contained an account of a prolonged and 

 fierce battle which took place, one morning in October, between two 

 large Otters, in the river at Fordingbridge, and was witnessed by a 

 number of spectators, who watched the fight for nearly an hour, the 

 combatants still continuing the encounter as they passed down the 

 stream, beneath the bridge on which the people were standing. These 

 were stated to be two dog Otters weighing twenty-five pounds each, 

 but how the sex or weight was ascertained it saith not. — Gk B. Corbin 

 (Ringwood). 



Common Seal on the Coast of Somerset. — On Dec. 17th last I saw 

 a full-grown Common Seal (Phoca vitulina) close into the rocks here 

 at high tide. Seals on this part of the Somerset coast are, I believe, 

 of very rare occurrence. — H. Meyrick (Clevedon, Somerset). 



AVES. 



Ring-Ouzel in Surrey. — With reference to Mr. Mouritz's note on 

 the Ring-Ouzel seen in Richmond Park on Sept. 10th, 1905 (Zool. 

 1906, p. 434), my own records of the bird's appearance in Surrey 

 during that year may be of interest. They are as follows : — On April 

 29th I noticed a Ring-Ouzel on the common-land in the neighbourhood 

 of Chart. The bird was very wild, and on my approach flew away into 

 some pine-woods, where I lost sight of it. On Sept. 24th I again met 



