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close observer of nature, and one well acquainted witli theliabitsof this 
animal ; to these articles I must refer you for a graphic description of 
such a scene as I imagine it has fallen to the lot of few to witness. 
Near Norwich the otter has been met with several times at 
Keswick and Eaton ; Mr. Gurney mentions a female and young 
one taken from under the floor of the bathing house at Heigham, 
and one in the city itself, killed by the late Mr. Horton in his 
dyeing yard adjoining the Wensum. A gentleman told me early 
in September, 1870, that as he was coming into Norwich by the 
Eastern Union Kailway, he saw from the carriage window two 
otters playing on the river bank, where the railway crosses it, 
at Lakenham ; but of course it is rarely they approach so near the 
busy haunts of man. Tlie reed-cutters and broad-men sometimes 
see them floating lazily on the surface of the water, or cautiously 
smuiming, all but the nose submerged, yet progressing through the 
water so quietly that the small exposed surface may easily be mis- 
taken for a water-rat. It sometimes also bappens that the bow-net is 
fomid to be unusually heavy, and the man rejoicing in the prospect of a 
splendid haul of tench, finds the net not only occupied by the fish, but 
by the fisher also. A large otter weighing 27 lbs. was thus taken at 
Ormesby, and two others at Carlingford. Wlien we consider the 
nocturnal habits of the otter — its stealthy, silent mode of pro- 
gression, the obscure colour of its coat, and the peculiar nature of 
its haunts — it is no longer surprising that so little should be known 
of its economy even by those Avlio have spent their lives where it 
most abounds, or have made it an object of sport. I venture, 
therefore, to call your attention to one or two obscure points in 
the history of the otter which I have been at some pains to try 
and elucidate so far as my opportunities will enable me. 
It was a “ fine, fresh May morning ” when Piscator and his 
friends sallied forth to fish the river Ware. One of their first 
adventures was the meeting a party of otter hunters * ; after having 
killed “ a bitch otter, which had lately whelped,” a short search 
discovered her young ones “ no less than five ” in number. Now 
either honest Isaac must have drawn upon his imagination in the 
matter of the young otters, or the otter itself must of late years 
have changed its tiiue for assuming the cares of maternity. Tliero 
has always been a shade of mystery about tlic breeding of the 
• Walton and Cotton’s Complete Angler, Major’s Edit., 1823, p. 50. 
