Some Notes on OttersAuthor(s): J. ffolliott DarlingSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Apr., 1916), pp. 67-68Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25524491 .

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1916. Notes. 67

Other birds I may mention as having seen about Kingstown during the

past winter are a Brent Goose on the 8th of December outside the West

Pier ; also Redbreasted Merganser frequently in the same place, and on

several occasions the Great Northern Diver, both there and inside of the

Harbour. I have also several times seen the Red-throated Diver, there

were two of them to be seen outside the West Pier on the 14th of this

month.

The Snow-buntings I have seen about here this winter seem to me to

be much more white than usual compared with the ones I have seen in

previous winters in other parts of Ireland.

Geo. Brown Crawford.

Rathgar, Dublin.

Some Notes on Otters.

One day last February (1915) I had a very interesting experience with

Otters. I was out fishing by myself (barring the dog) on Lough Ree.

While rowing away from a submerged island I saw something black

swimming after the boat, about 150 yards off ; the first thought that

flashed across my mind was "

Did ' Nigger

' fall out of the boat without

my having noticed it ? "

But, of course, that was absurd. Then I saw

that it was an Otter. Almost immediately it was joined by another. The

pair came along pretty fast after me, and soon got alongside, a couple of oars

lengths away, playing about, jumping over and diving under each other ; a few times I heard a little

" mew

" like a kitten. Then they swam on

ahead of the boat, but presently turned and came back again close to the

boat, and without being in the least frightened or in a hurry went back

the way they came. They were both full grown animals. A little while

afterwards I saw them playing at the end of another island.

The first-mentioned island is a favourite haunt of theirs, and I often see

traces of them?remains of Eels, Bream, and Pike. One day last month

I landed on it (the lake being low for winter) to look for snipe. At a point at one end my retriever bitch picked up a recently killed Coot ; it was

warm, with the head and neck bitten off. A little later I saw something

floating on the water a few hundreds of yards away, blowing with the

wind, and picked it up with the landing net to see what it was, and found

it to be the skin of the neck. It was up wind of where the body was

discovered, so that the Otter must have gone off with the neck in his mouth

and dropped the skin some distance away to the windward.

The following day, at about the same time, I was there again, and saw

an Otter dive into the water from that point, and, sure enough, there, in exactly the same place, was another

" baldy," just dead and his head

bitten off ; so it appears as if that Otter has tiffin off a Coot there quite

regularly. He put up his head about thirty yards away and watched me

for a little while, and then disappeared. I saw him in the water swimming in to the same spot a few days later.

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68 The Irish Naturalist April, 1916.

I may say that next day I found the skeleton of the second Coot (1 took away the first) neatly picked. AU round that island are usually swarms of Coots and other water-fowl?the water black with them in

winter as a rule.

On one occasion a few years ago I was walking along the edge of the

lake when an object in the water attracted my attention. On hooking it

out with the crook of my stick I was surprised to find the upper half of a large Bream, which would have weighed 5 to 6 lbs. when entire ; it

was alive, and the lower half had been eaten off as cleanly as if cut off

with an axe. I didn't see the Otter. I had a newspaper in my pocket, so,J after giving the half fish a couple of knocks on the back of the head, I

rolled it in the newspaper and slipped it into the "

poacher's "

pocket of my shooting coat. On producing it at the house about an hour after

wards it turned out to be still alive, so I thrust the blade of my knife into

the back of its neck to sever the spinal cord. However, several hours later

when someone went to inspect it there was still life left and the remains

flopped about when touched.

J. FFOLLIOTT DARLING.

The Bay, Athlone.

Cuvier's Whale in Irish Waters?

Dr. J. F. Harcuer communicated an interesting report to the Zoological

Society of London last year on the discovery of two specimens of Cuvier's

Whale (Ziphius curvirostris) on the Irish Coast. This account has now been

published {Proc. Zool. Soc, 1915, pp. 559-566). The first of the two

specimens referred to was stranded at Fethard, Co. Wexford, and proved to be a male, measuring 19 feet in length. The pair of large massive

teeth at the anterior end of the lower jaw indicated that the animal was

not a Bottle-nosed Whale as was supposed, but a Cuvier's Whale. The

specimen previously recorded as a Bottle-nose from Unionhall, Cork (see Irish Naturalist, 1915, p. 108) was then re-examined and it likewise proved to belong to the same species. Its length was 20 feet, and it was probably a female.

Cuvier's Whale seems difficult to distinguish externally from the Bottle -

nosed Whale. It coloration is very variable and the only definite character

which separates it from its near relations is the projection of the lower jaw

beyond the upper. The characteristic teeth in the lower jaw do not seem

to be visible either in the young or in females, as they do not then cut

the gums. But when a whale is noticed to have two strong teeth at the

end of the lower jaw and when the forehead is not swollen as in the Bottle

nose, it may be suspected to belong to Cuvier's Whale.

National Museum, Dublin.

R. F. Scharff.

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