while out for a a stroll, was frightened by an accidental noise, and at once plunged into the tank and swam across, nearly all the way under water. The next day (when the cubs were almost nine weeks old) on my giving some fish to the old otter while the cubs were out with her, she took two small roach to them and tried to entice them to eat, by taking first one fish, then the other, then both together in her mouth and moving them about close in front of the cubs to attract their at- tention, at the same time uttering a peculiar whine or growl, or something between the two, which was quite new to me, and which sounded ferocious ; her intention evidently was to make them believe she did not want them to take the fish from her, while all the while she was using her utmost cunning to incite them to do that very thing ! The cubs were by dint of much patience gradually induced to try, and though they at last occa- sionally gnawed at the fish, they appeared on this occasion to get nothing off. This amiable dissimulation was repeated daily for some time afterwards. On 31 December (when 11½ weeks old) they appreciated an additional fish meal at about 11.15 p.m. ; and a day or two later a third meal was added first thing in the morning ; but the cubs lay up through all the remainder of the day, and if food were given at other times the mother made no at- tempt to induce them to eat. On 25 Janu- ary (when fifteen weeks old) the cubs came out an hour earlier than usual (at 5 instead of 6 p.m.), and continued gradually to come out earlier until 20 February, when they were out as early as 2.30 p.m. I could not satisfy myself how long they continued to suckle, but believe they did so all through the spring.
The above are the bare bones of the story, but the whole episode, watched day by day, and almost night and day, with its various little details, proved one of the most interest- ing events, from a naturalist's point of view, that I can imagine. Both cubs were females ; one I eventually sold ; the remaining one came in season for the first time when ten months old, but was hardly full-grown before she had completed her twelvemonth. Males continue to grow rather longer than this. She spent six months of her life in London, at the Fisheries Exhibition. From the time I obtained the mother as a cub about two months old, to the death of the daughter, seventeen years and almost nine months elapsed. Each lived to be over ten years old. The cause of death in the mother was slightly obscure, while the daughter was drowned during very cold weather under the ice in her tank. In both cases however they had lost the vigour of youth, so died from accidents that would hardly have proved fatal to younger animals.
The two largest Thames otters that I have handled were trapped at different spots above Bisham, near Great Mario w, and were natu- rally both males. One, caught 14 July 1889, was brought to me alive, but died from the injury sustained in trapping. The other was caught 23 April 1882. The two largest females from the Thames, of which I have measurements, were both caught by myself. One, on the lock eyot, Great Marlow, 1 May 1896, died 25 February 1898; the other, caught 10 july 1873, died 27 December 1878. The largest ever killed by the Bucks Otter Hounds was near Thornton Hall, Bucking- ham, and weighed more than 30 lb., which was the limit of weight the steel yard could show.
The second of the two Thames females mentioned above was caught in an unusual manner. On the evening of the day named (10 July 1873), I went up the river to shoot some water voles for my wild cats, and after securing two or three, saw near the Bucks side, a little above Bisham Grange, a piece of water weed travelling steadily up stream. Not doubting that this was being carried by a water vole, I put up the gun and was on the point of firing when I noticed what appeared to be a water vole's head about a foot beyond the water-weed, and the two objects kept exactly the same distance apart as they pro- ceeded up the river. Struck by this odd cir- cumstance I paused, and instantaneously saw that the leading object was not a vole's head but an otter's nose, the remainder of the head being under water ; and that the weed was lodged against the curve of the back, which just protruded above water. To shoot an otter being about the last thing I should wish to do, I half-cocked and put down the gun, whispered to my dog, who was on the tow- path, and had seen me put up the gun, though he could not see what I was pointing at, to 'down-charge,' which he did at once; and noiselessly backed the boat up stream to see as much as I could of the otter. It continued steadily up stream, generally swimming, but once or twice getting into shallow water it waded for a few yards, until at last it dis- appeared into or under a thick stubby hazel- bush growing out of the bank and hanging down to the water's edge. I forced the boat's head into the bush, and kneeling in the bow pushed my head in likewise ; on opening my eyes I saw a large hole doubtless a water- expanded water vole's hole under the roots of the hazel, and the otter looking out of it.
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