The Otter In Massachusetts. 
Though rather sparse in its distribution, the 
otter was once found over pretty much the 
whole of the North American continent, but in 
most of the thickly settled regions it has been 
threatened with extermination. It is not com¬ 
monly known that otters are sometimes caught 
in Massachusetts to-day, yet there are more of 
them in that State and generally in the Con¬ 
necticut River valley than would be imagined. 
A long letter in Science from C. E. Gordon, 
in November, 1908, gives much interesting in¬ 
formation on this point. 
While the fur of this animal makes it con¬ 
stantly sought for by the trapper, its shyness, 
its restlessness, its tendency to travel from 
place to place, and its solitary habits in a meas¬ 
ure protect it. On the other hand, it con¬ 
stantly exposes its presence by the habit of 
sliding into the water, and when a trapper finds 
an otter slide, he takes measures to capture the 
animal. 
The great traveling capability of the otter is 
attested by its wide distribution. It is found 
apparently in no great abundance at any one 
place, but is likely to be met with in localities 
adapted to its habits. The roaming habit, of 
course, in a way stands between jt and destruc¬ 
tion. In its new haunts it may live and breed 
for some time, undiscovered. In the old it 
would probably have been hunted so relent¬ 
lessly that it would have been extirpated. 
It is a matter of some surprise that the otter 
is as abundant as records seem to show in cer¬ 
tain parts of Massachusetts. It has always been 
included in lists of the mammalian fauna, and 
at no time seems to have become so reduced in 
numbers as to be omitted from such lists. In 
183s E. Hitchcock included it in his list of 
Massachusetts mammals, without reservation, 
from which fact we may infer that if not 
abundant, it was yet fairly common. In 1840 
E. Emmons wrote: “The otter is still an in¬ 
habitant of our waters, but, from its shyness, 
watchfulness and aquatic habits, is rarely seen 
and still more rarely captured.” In 1861. how¬ 
ever, E. A. Samuels referred to the otter as 
“once quite common,” but “now nearly exter¬ 
minated, one in two or three years being about 
the greatest number captured.” He reported 
a specimen killed that season near Marlborough, 
Middlesex county, and another at Palmer, 
Hampden county. Eight years later J. A. 
Allen wrote of the otter as “not rare; still not 
often captured,” and stated that during the ten 
preceding years some half dozen had been taken 
near Springfield. 
Records are not at hand for later years up 
to the winter of 1905-6. During that season a 
party fishing through the ice at an ox-bow of 
the Connecticut River one-half mile north of 
Hatfield caught an otter. In the confusion fol¬ 
lowing this unexpected catch the creature 
escaped. In the succeeding autumn another fine 
specimen, a male, was taken in the town of 
North tladley, just across the river from Hat¬ 
field, from a mill pond in a creek known locally 
as “Mill River.” A few months later still another 
specimen, an old male, was taken from this 
pond. The skeleton and mounted skin of this 
animal are now in the Massachusetts mammal 
collection at the Agricultural College. Shortly 
afterward a third male was caught froni this 
pond. The trap had been set at the “play¬ 
ground” of the animals. Tracks have frequently 
been seen near Fort River, a few miles south 
of Mill River, and in a mill pond of this stream 
another was trapped in the winter of 1907-8. 
In the early spring of 1908 a pair of otters were 
shot in the “old bed,” a large ox-bow of tbe 
Connecticut near Mt. Tom Junction. In the 
preceding winter months a boy shot another 
on a cake of ice in the Connecticut River near 
Hatfield. At Sunderland, north of Amherst, in 
the same season, another specimen was shot in 
a brook, tributary to the river. In Swift River, 
a few miles east of the Connecticut, two others 
were caught in a trap within the last two or 
three years. Traditions of the presence of the 
otter, a dozen, twenty and more years ago are 
common among the residents of the river towns 
in this neighborhood, but it is generally con¬ 
ceded that these animals appear more abundant 
at the present time than for many years pre¬ 
ceding. 
A few weeks ago, while searching for micro¬ 
scopic forms near Mill River, I came upon a 
large otter feeding in a stagnant pool near the 
creek. My approach had been along the road. 
The dust was very deep and muffied every 
sound. The creature remained feeding—ap¬ 
parently on vegetable matter, possibly frogs— 
or paddling about for several minutes at a 
distance of less than one hundred feet from my 
standing place. At last it evidently saw or 
scented me, and mounted the bank and was 
lost in the brush. It soon emerged at the bank 
of the stream a hundred yards away and swam 
around a bend out of sight. 
The surprising abundance of these animals in 
the Connecticut valley is thus shown and seem-s 
to be a matter deserving of record. The extent 
of their presence elsewhere in the State can 
not be stated with any accuracy. Dr. Glover M. 
Allen reports that they are occasionally seen 
about the Charles River in the eastern part of 
the State, he having found unmistakable tracks 
of the otter near Dedham, Norfolk county, two 
winters ago. 
The abundance of these animals in the Con¬ 
necticut River valley has suggested to me that 
they have come along this waterway from the 
north outside the limits of the State to the 
smaller tributaries of the river in the lowland 
of the valley. They may have traveled east¬ 
ward through the valleys of the Ware, the As- 
sabet, and the Blackstone to the seaboard. 
But one must not overlook the possibility of 
their having come along another waterway from 
the north—the Merrimac, along the tributaries 
of which (the Concord and the Nashua) they 
might have easily made their way southward. 
The emigration from Vermont of terrestrial 
mammals is a matter of common knowledge. 
This emigration is along the Hoosac and 
Taconic ranges in the western part of the State. 
Early reports record many wild mammals in 
these districts, but their numbers are fewer, 
apparently, at present. In the fall of 1907, how¬ 
ever, a black bear, variety not known, was shot 
near Williamsburg in the eastern foothills of 
the Berkshires. Some indication of the num¬ 
ber of wildcats is had from the treasurer’s 
records in Berkshire county. By the enactment 
of our general court (Chap. 344, Acts of 1903) 
provision is made for the payment o.f a bounty 
of $5-00 for ever)" wildcat killed in the State. 
The following bounties have been paid in Berk¬ 
shire county under the provisions of this act: 
1903, $100; 1904, $110; 1905, $115; 1906, $100; 
1907, $60. The records are not sufficiently ex¬ 
plicit as to the species of lynx, but the loup- 
cervier seems far less common, as in only a few 
cases was the distinction made on the certifi¬ 
cate. These animals are sporadically reported 
from other sections of the State, but often 
from localities that lead to the suspicion that 
they may have immigrated from the western 
hilly or mountainous parts. 
Birds of New Jersey. 
Wither Stone, the eminent ornithologist of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel¬ 
phia, is engaged in the preparation of an elabor¬ 
ate report on the birds of New Jersey which will 
be published by the State Museum of Trenton. 
Mr. Stone is making every effort to have the 
record of each species as full and complete as 
possible, and with this end in view he is par¬ 
ticularly anxious to hear from sportsmen or 
others who have obtained or observed rare or 
interesting waterfowl or other birds in the State 
of New Jersey. He desires also to secure any 
information that he can relative to the prairie 
chickens on the Grouse Plains of New Jersey. 
Accounts of the white herons and other water- 
fowl, that in the old days bred in such numbers 
along the coast, would be valued, and generally 
any information on the subject of birds that can 
be had. He especially wishes to correspond with 
anyone acquainted with the birds of Sussex and 
Warren counties. 
Many sportsmen are well enough acquainted 
with most of our larger birds to recognize them 
when seen, yet too often they are either so 
doubtful about their observations or so careless 
about them that they do not make a formal 
record of what they have seen. We know a 
resident of New Jersey who believes that with¬ 
in a few years he has several times seen pas¬ 
senger pigeons in that State, yet he has never 
wholly satisfied himself on the point. Sports¬ 
men who have interesting observations on these 
points will do well to communicate with Mr. 
Stone at the address given. 
Readers familiar with the observations of the 
older ornithologists—Wilson and Audubon—on 
the Jersey coast will recognize the great interest 
of a careful modern list of New Jersey birds. 
