NOTES AND QUERIES. 263 
may find food even there; and we well know they do not confine themselves 
to a fish diet. Young Moorhens and Coot are often taken, as well as young 
Wild Duck. I am informed that in April, the Otter-hounds—from Devon- 
shire, I believe—which usually make an annual visit to this neighbourhood, 
killed one Otter and lost another in the small stream that separates the 
counties of Hants and Dorset; and only a few days ago (May 16th) I saw 
one that had been killed near the same place; it was a male, and weighed 
sixteen pounds. Some time ago a gamekeeper told me he had several 
times, in the early morning, seen what he thought was an old Otter and 
young ones disporting themselves in a particular part of the river, and in 
the dim twilight had once had an unsuccessful shot atthem. One morning 
some time afterwards, however, about 9 a.m., he saw two Otters, about the 
size of terriers, playing like puppies in the sunshine, on the river bank. 
One of these he shot (which I saw), but he said he had no sooner shot than 
(what he supposed was) the old female and another young one made their 
appearance out in the stream, the larger of the two raising itself in the 
water, at the same time uttering a loud and shrill whistle, repeated again 
and again, as if anxiously calling the slaughtered cub. As far as I can 
learn, none of the Otters of which I have spoken were preserved, except as 
skins for the sake of the fur, which is much sought after for dress trim- 
mings, &c. ‘The man who caught the eight Otters before mentioned has 
been a river keeper all his life, and during the time has shot and trapped 
some scores of them; but he tells me that only in one solitary instance has 
he trapped an Otter by the hind leg, and he is under the impression that 
on occasions when his traps have been ‘“ thrown ” and unoccupied, the 
Otter has managed to withdraw its hind foot from the jaws of the trap ; and 
this supposition seems very feasible, if we note the difference in the form 
of the hind and fore feet, for the latter are comparatively (I use the word 
advisedly) soft and fan-like, whilst the former are tapering and rigid; and 
any person who has inspected an Otter must have been struck with the 
wonderful strength that must be developed in the short thick limbs, neck, 
and jaws of the cylindrical body, which, together with the glossy close-set 
hair and under fur, adapts it so admirably to its mode of life, and the 
element in which it delights to live.—G. B. Corsin (Ringwood, Hants). 
_ CARNIVORA AND RODENTIA, 
The Scientific Names of the Badger and the Common Vole.—In 
the list of British Mammals (ante, p. 97), by a slip the Badger was 
accidentally omitted, although a passing reference to it as one of the animals 
for which Scomber-scomber names were necessary was made on p. 99. As 
igs there indicated, its technical name should be Meles meles, based on 
Linneus’s “‘ Ursus meles,” instead of the current but incorrect Meles taxus, 
