6 
FELIDJE. 
and some of my southern correspondents have made the same observation, 
in reference to their districts. A gentleman residing in an inland situ- 
ation considers that the species is there on the increase, in consequence 
of the measures now adopted to preserve the fish in rivers, and also owing 
to the withdrawal of rewards for otters’ heads. 
The size and weight of the individuals that have come under my own 
inspection, in a recent state, varied much. The largest one was a male, 
killed in October, 1847, near Drumbridge, on the river Lagan, a few 
miles from Belfast, and which is preserved in the Belfast Museum. Its 
dimensions were : — 
Feet. 'Inches. 
Length of head and body . . .27 
— of the head . . . 0 5|- 
— of the tail .... 1 6^ 
Girth at chest 1 6| 
— at belly 18 
Weight, 21 lbs. Several others have been killed near the same locality. 
Mr. Ogilby was at one time of opinion that the Irish otter was spe- 
cifically distinct from the English, and he named the former, provision- 
ally, Lutra Roensis. — See Zool. Proc. for 1834 (page 111). He does not, 
however, now consider them distinct. 
In 1845 I compared specimens from Annan with Irish otters sent to 
Sir William Jardine from Limerick, and found them to differ in the 
larger size of the skull of the latter and its proportions ; but in no ex- 
ternal characters was there any marked difference. Dr. It. Ball, who 
states that otters are very numerous in the South of Ireland, supplied me 
with the following note, in September, 1836 : — I saw Lutra Roensis in 
the Zoological Museum, London. I have never seen an Irish otter that 
was not like it, nor did I ever see one like the specimen placed beside it, 
marked as the common otter, so that I am inclined to think we have not 
the variety (it does not seem more) common in England, and perhaps 
they have not ours.” The same gentleman also remarks, that French 
otters differ more from English than the latter do from Irish ones. In 
April, 1850, Mr. Robert Langtry obtained a white otter at Islay, which 
he caused to be preserved, and sent for safe keeping to the Belfast Mu- 
seum, where it yet remains. There is not a coloured spot on any part of 
this specimen. The stomach of a female, which was sent to a taxidernist 
in Belfast, contained several full-grown specimens of the three-spined 
stickle-back, and these only. 
When at Florence Court, in 1840, I was informed that Lord Belmore 
had, for a long time, a tame otter, which was trained to catch fish. It did 
not invariably bring them to its master’s feet, although it played its part 
in this respect very well. 
Newspaper paragraphs announcing the destruction of otters in various 
parts of Ireland are of frequent occurrence. 
Mr. St. John, in his Wild Sports, &c. (chap, xii.), gives an interesting 
account of the otter. 
The Weasel, Mustela vulgaris , Linn. 
I have never met with this animal in Ireland, nor do I consider that the 
species has yet been satisfactorily proved to be native, although it may 
be so. The stoat, which passes under the name of weasel in this country, 
is common throughout the island ; and from the circumstance of Temple- 
ton having noted the weasel as “ common,” and the stoat as “ rare,” I am 
