NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
'1 he Coutthy Genl/emen's Estate Book, 1905. Edited by W. Broonihall. 
Country Gentlemen’s Association. Price 5s. 6d. 
This bulky and handsome volume contains much that will be of interest to 
every country gentleman, articles on estate law, valuation and accounts, cheap 
cottages, agricultural education, forestry, fruit-growing and sport, a directory of 
land agents, and an admirable series of views of noblemen’s seats and designs for 
country houses. 
Received : The Plant World and The American Botanist for March ; 
Bird-Lore and The Victorian Naturalist for March and April ; The Totnesian 
for April ; Our Animal Friends for April and May ; and The Naturalist, The 
Irish Naturalist, Nature-Study, The Animals' Friend, The Animal World, 
The Humanitarian, The Parents' Revie'v, and The Agricultural Economist for 
May. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
239 . Protection of the Otter. — Your correspondent, in Note No. 230, 
covers a wide range of observation under this head, and it ap(>ears to me, in his 
solicitude for the welfare of the otter, has unduly whitewashed this predatory 
animal. First of all, I believe that, if the otter is decreasing in its numbers, it is 
mainly because, apart from any persecution by trapping or hunting, it is one of 
those extreme recluses that inevitably vanishes in proportion as human dwellings 
and heings encroach on its haunts. I have never seen a print depicting “ the 
death of an otter by the gun,” as referred to by your correspondent, and think in 
any case that otter-hunting on organised lines accounts for but a small proportion 
of deaths. 
The fact that otters abound where streams are full of fish is surely a sign 
that the otter goes where the most fish are to be had, rather than that, as Mr. 
Daubeny implies, the otter is more sinned against than sinning in the matter of 
the tale of fish that are put to his account. My e.xperience is that the otter is a 
most wanton hunter and will kill large fish to eat only a very small portion 
therefrom and leave the rest. 
The question of preserving the otter is not, I think, at all on all fours with 
the protection of wild birds, for the latter are a perpetual pleasure and interest 
to everyone who sees and hears them and pursues the study of their lives, whereas 
the otter cannot afford the same scope of universal interest. I question if one 
per cent, of our Members has ever seen a wild otter in this country. 
I do not advocate the persecution of the otter, but I think there are two sides 
to the question, and it is, I believe, doubtful whether much could be advanced in 
favour of rigid protection for the otter. 
Elm Lodge, Elm Row, Herbert J. Rodgers. 
Hampstead, N. W. 
May 14, 1905. 
240 . Wild Birds Perching: on Man. — Anent the above I have been 
rather interested, because I have had some very curious experiences in this 
direction. In a volume I published when quite a young man, I pictorially 
referred to a weasel climbing upon my boot, while I sought shelter under a 
bridge during a shower. This was no imaginary instance, but an actual fact, 
as recorded in “ Parish Patches,” published by Mr. Thomas Buncle, Arbroath, 
N.B. 
Another time I was seated on a bank-side when a song-thrush came from an 
overhanging branch and chattered excitedly. I kept perfectly still and quiet, 
when it rested upon my arm and commenced to sing. Then it left me, and 
again returned to sing again. Its nest I discovered afterwards within a few 
yards of the bank side. I have had swallows twice settle upon my rod while 
fishing, and once while going homewards along the turnpike road a sand-martin 
tried to alight upon the rod I carried over my shoulder. 
While feeding my poultry one morning a cock chaffinch flew into the dish. 
