MAMMALS presence of a town of considerable size on the banks of a river frequented by these animals by no means prevents their passage up and down stream. At Ipswich the curious whistling call of the otter has been heard at night, where the river Orwell passes through the town. Mr. Hudson, the Ipswich taxider- mist, who at the time had several otters in his shop, informed the writer of a curious incident which took place a short time before. While the passenger steamer Merrimac was lying at Ipswich, a man proceeding to clean one of her paddle-boxes found an otter inside it, which I am sorry to add he destroyed. In the local museum there is a large otter labelled ' Killed in Stoke Park,' which is just outside the town. The Essex Otterhounds, on 27 August 1902, killed three otters near Stowmarket, weighing respectively 24, 15 and 7 lb. In May 1879 a fine male entered one of the marsh draining mills on the Minsmere level, where it was shot by the man in charge of the mill. The marshes in that neighbourhood are much frequented by otters. On one occasion, close to a thick plantation bordering upon these marshes, Mr. A. M. Rope had in sight two of these animals at the same moment and was able to watch them for some time. In the spring of 1883 they seem to have been quite numerous in the Waveney. Among others destroyed, a female and her cubs were ' done to death ' near Bun- gay. It seems indeed to be thought a heroic and praiseworthy deed to take the lives of these graceful creatures, whose presence so greatly enhances the interest and attractive- ness of the places they haunt. Otter cubs are, as is well known, born at various seasons, and not, like the young of most wild animals, in the spring and summer only.' On 10 March 1885 two young otters were caught in a farmyard at Stratford St. Andrew by means of a running noose on the end of a pole. They were at the time not quite half grown, and were probably born during the previous autumn. A small cub killed by a dog on the Abbey farm at Snape on 5 De- cember 1892 appeared to be then about eight or nine weeks old. In severe winters, when neither frogs, eels nor fish of any sort are any longer to be had, the otter is forced to subsist on whatever it can get, preying upon water- hens, rabbits, etc. During the winter of 1891-2 near Leiston, Mr. A. M. Rope fol- lowed the track of one of these animals in the snow, which left the river and led across some fields. Here it appeared to have tried to seize a hare in its seat, but only succeeded in getting a mouthful of fiir. 20. Common Seal. Phoca vitulina, Linn. Almost every year a few seals visit diflFerent parts of the SufiFolk coast, sometimes enter- ing the rivers in pursuit of their prey. The Messrs. Paget refer to this animal as follows : ' Occasionally has been seen in the Roads, or been thrown upon the beach ; one weighing 14 stones killed March 1822. They seem formerly to have been much more common.' Mr. N. F. Hele,' writing thirty-six years later than the Pagets, mentions the occurrence of four seals at Aldeburgh and Thorpe, between 1863 and 1869. He remarks that: 'It is probable that these animals come from the north, and follow the shoals of herrings. In every instance of capture or otherwise, the seals have always appeared off Thorpe, to northward of us, before arriving here.' Mr. T. Southwell, in an article on the ' Mamma- lia of Norfolk," has drawn attention to a colony of these animals inhabiting sandbanks in the Wash. It seems only reasonable to suppose that those seen from time to time on the coasts of Suffolk and Essex are wanderers from these sandbanks. Two seals were ob- served in the Stour, between Harwich and Manningtree in 1854, one of which was shot by a puntsman.* A beautiful specimen lately on view at the shop of Mr. Hudson of Ipswich had been shot in the Deben on 22 February 1902. For a very long period these creatures have from time to time made their appearance on the beach at Orford, particularly about the shifting shingle at the mouth of the river, and it is supposed by some that the traditional ' wild man ' of Orford, shut up for a time in the castle, was in reality a seal. In November 1872 one of these animals was observed several days in succession in the river at Orford, sometimes opposite the quay. On one occasion it was seen with a fish in its mouth between the quay and a vessel lying close by. According to Mr. C. Rope of that town, the time that seals most frequently make their appearance there is from the latter part of November to the end of December, but in 1902 two were observed in July. One was seen at Felix- stowe by a night watchman in October 1900 {East Anglian Daily Times, 22 October
- Mr. Southwell's observations show this animal
to be, in Norfolk at least, a late autumn and winter breeder.
- Jottinp about Aldtburgb, N. F. Hele.
- Trans. Norf. and Ntr. Nat. Sec. i. (i 870-1),.
7«-
- MammaBa ef Essex, H. Laver, F.L.S., p. 55.
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