MAMMALIA 35 



pelage of the Foumarts of the fells being rough, and more harsh 

 to the touch than that of animals killed on the low ground, just 

 as some difference was supposed to exist between the furs of 

 Foumarts killed on open mosses, and such animals as had led a 

 purely silvan existence. Any reader interested in such distinc- 

 tions should consult the paper ' Des races et des varietes dans 

 l'espece Mustela putorius,' published in the Bulletins de L'Acaddmie 

 Royale du Belgique, vol. xiv. pp. 365-368 ; par Adolphe Duon fils. 

 M. Duon recognises two races, — a black race, which frequents dry 

 places and the neighbourhood of houses, and a yellow race, which 

 lives in wet situations. He considers the black race to be longer 

 in the body than the yellow form, and to have shorter legs, and 

 its disposition is much more fierce than that of the yellow 

 variety. The most ordinary form he considers to be ' le putois 

 brun-jaune,' the result originally of a cross between the two 

 strongly marked races, typical specimens of which he considers 

 rare. I have the more pleasure in referring to M. Duon's paper 

 because his observations were based upon an examination of no 

 less than 200 individuals. He had himself trapped no fewer 

 than 108 specimens. The other 92 specimens were brought to 

 him by the ' gardes-chasse.' 



OTTER. 



Lutra vulgaris, Erxl. 



It would be difficult to name any part of Britain as better 

 adapted to the tastes and requirements of the Otter than the 

 English Lake district. With rivers and becks of every size at 

 his disposal, the Otter enjoys the life of easy plenty, and 

 pursues his marauding expeditions in all the salmon waters, 

 from the Kent and Crake to the most northern streams. The 

 only serious check upon the Otter's increase is effected by those 

 who surreptitiously trap these fine animals. This winter, for 

 example, 1891-92, no fewer than seven Otters met with an 

 untimely fate, being trapped on the Petteril near Penrith. 

 Four of the number were young ones. The destroyer had 

 better a thousand times have spared the cubs to sport with their 

 fond old dam in that easy-tempered stream of their birth, 



