85 
brooded, and that the number is from one to tlirec, rarely exceed 
ing the latter. As this is a matter of some interest, it is as well 
to give the data upon which my opiidon is based. See table p. 84. 
It will bo observed that out of the fourteen instiinces in which 
very youny otters occurring in this county, have come to any know- 
ledge, the earliest date was some time in the month of October, 
and the latest the 28th of March. My first date I am inclined to 
regard as quite exceptional j and with regard to the others, I have 
endeavoured to ascertain, as nearly as possible, the age of the 
young ones when taken, in order to be able to tabulate them under 
the date of birth. In some of the cases there has been very little 
uncertainty as to tlicir age, others are rather doubtful, but as the 
two young ones, born in the Zoological tJardens, left the nest when 
five weeks old, and took to the water with the parents at seven 
weeks, wo may fairly presume that all those found in the nest 
were not more than five weeks old ; such being the case, with the 
single exception of ^Ir. Blofeld’s young one, all those, to the ago of 
which wo have any clue, may be referred to the months of December, 
January, and February— the proportions being as follows 1 in 
October, ; 4 in December; 4 in January ; and 5 in February— 14. 
A female otter, (Lund and JVeder, 9th April, 1870,) was killed 
on the river Avon, in Hampshire, in lAIarch, 1870; five days after 
the old ones death, her three young ones came up to the legs of a 
gardener who was digging near the river ; they are said t-o have 
been the “ size of small tom-cats,” and supposed to have been five 
or SIX weeks old. They appear to have been caught on the 19 th 
of March, and supposing them then to have been seven or eight 
weeks old, they would have been born on the 22nd or 29th of 
January. A cutting from the Liverpool Courier, quoted in Land 
and Water, for 4th March, 1871, states, that on Sunday, the 29th 
of January, 'William Jones, a plate-layer, was taking a walk on 
Bidstono Marsh, near the head of Mallasey Pool, when his doer 
lighted upon a female otter, and folloAved her into her hole; the 
otter was kiUed, and Jones, finding her in milk, searched for her 
young ones, the result was, “ a lively pup, about three feet long,” 
which was captured without injury. I think, however, there mSt 
be some mistake about the “lively pup’s” length.* 
^ * Since the above wa.s written, a young otter, one of two sent up from 
Cormvall for the Brighton Aquarium, lias died in tlie Zoological Gardens, 
