toward the west. It must be recollected that the westerly direction of the belt here spoken of is principally the resultant of the south-westerly and north-westerly winds alternately predominating during the year.'[1]
"From these considerations and facts, therefore, we are entitled to conclude that the transfer of American birds to Europe, is principally, if not entirely, by the agency of the winds, in seizing them during the period of their migration (the autumnal especially), when they follow the coast, or cross its curves, often at a considerable distance from land, or a great height above it. Carried off, away out to sea, mainly from about the latitude of 45° (the line of greatest intensity of the winds), the first land they can make is that of England, whence the fact that most of the species have occurred in the British Islands as well as Heligoland, equally well fitted to attract stragglers and furnish them a resting-place."
In view of these observations from so competent an authority, it is not unlikely that the bird which forms the subject of this notice may have found its way to this country without the agency of man, and if this be so it deserves to be placed in the annually increasing catalogue of "Rarer British Birds."
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
Autumnal Breeding of the Otter.—On the 5th of December I happened to be in Mr. Vingoe's laboratory, where I saw a young Otter, about the size of a Fitch, or Polecat, which had been brought in from an adjacent valley, where it was seen and knocked on the head. I was not aware that the Otter bred in the autumnal months, as well as in the spring, when we know they do breed.—Edward Hearle Rodd (Penzance).
[The time of breeding with the Otter seems to be quite uncertain, young ones being found at very different seasons of the year. Mr. Bell, in the 2nd edition of his 'British Quadrupeds,' p. 176, says, "The female goes with young nine weeks, and produces from three to five young ones in March or April." The Rev. Leonard Jenyns says (Brit. Vert. An. p. 13) it breeds in March. Mr. Harris, of Moorswater, Liskeard, Cornwall, informed us some time since that he had taken young on the 3rd of April, "not much larger than mice, but covered with hair, and able to swim."
Isaac Walton, who, from being constantly on the river, ought to have known something about Otters, speaks of discovering a female Otter, with five young ones, in May ('Complete Angler,' Major's 4th edition, p. 50).
- ↑ See Prof. Henry's articles on Meteorology, 'Report of Commissioner of Patents for 1856," p. 489.
