Notes. 
67 
Other birds I may mention as having seen about Kingstown during the 
past winter are a Brent Goose on the 8th of December outside the West 
Pier ; also Redbreasted Merganser frequently in the same place, and on 
several occasions the Great Northern Diver, both there and inside of the 
Harbour. I have also several times seen the Red -throated Diver, there 
were two of them to be seen outside the West Pier on the 14th of this 
month. 
The Snow -buntings I have ssen about here this winter seem to me to 
be much more white than usual compared with the ones I have seen in 
previous winters in other parts of Ireland. ' 
Geo. Brown Crawford. 
Rathgar, Dublin. 
Some Notes on Otters. 
One day last February (191 5) I had a very interesting experience with 
Otters. I was out fishing by myself (barring the dog) on Lough Ree. 
While rowing away from a submerged island I saw something black 
swimming after the boat, about 150 yards off ; the first thought that 
flashed across my mind was " Did ' Nigger ' fall out of the boat without 
my having noticed it ? " But, of course, that was absurd. Then I saw 
that it was an Otter. Almost immediately it was joined by another. The 
pair came along pretty fast after me, and soon got alongside, a couple of oars 
lengths away, playing about, jumping over and diving under each other ; 
a few times I heard a little " mew " like a kitten. Then they swam on 
ahead of the boat, but presently turned and came back again close to the 
boat, and without being in the least frightened or in a hurry went back 
the way they came. They were both full grown animals. A little while 
afterwards I saw them playing at the end of another island. 
. The first -mentioned island is a favourite haunt of theirs, and I often see 
traces of them — remains of Eels, Bream, and Pike. One day last month 
I landed on it (the lake being low for winter) to look for snipe. At a point 
at one end my retriever bitch picked up a recently killed Coot ; it was 
warm, with the head and neck bitten off. A little later I saw something 
floating on the water a few hundreds of yards away, blowing with the 
wind, and picked it up with the landing net to see what it was, and found 
it to be the skin of the neck. It was up wind of where the body was 
discovered, so that the Otter must have gone off with the neck in his mouth 
and dropped the skin some distance away to the windward. 
The following day, at about the same time, I was there again, and saw 
an Otter dive into the water from that point, and, sure enough, there, 
in exactly the same place, was another " baldy," just dead and his head 
bitten off ; so it appears as if that Otter has tiffin off a Coot there quite 
regularly. He put up his head about thirty yards away and watched me 
for a little while, and then disappeared. I saw him in the water swimming 
in to the same spot a few days later. 
