NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 123
greater rarity of Testacella haliotoidea, Drap., has been confounded
with this species for a long time, though Sowerby described it as
distinct some seventy years ago. Much more recently, Mr. Charles
Ashford and Mr. J. W. Taylor showed that the two species were
distinct from an anatomical as well as an external point of view, but
it was at the same time owned that the specimen of the first species
was immature. This may have had something to do with the fact
that the distinctiveness has not even yet been universally recognised,
and the writer of the paper under consideration has thought it
necessary to endorse Mr. Taylor's opinions with regard to Testacella
scutulum, having examined a number of adult individuals of that
species.3
The accompanying illustration is taken from the original drawings-
made from nature by Mr. W. J. Webb for the plate in the
"Zoologist," the specimens having been taken at Buckhurst Hill by
Mr. H. C. Snell.
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Otters Breeding in the open near Brightlingsea.—Mr. John Bateman,
J.P., of Brightlingsea Hall, writes : "On August 23rd some scythemen were
cutting reeds in a shallow pool, or rather low-lying marsh, artificially flooded,
and planted with reeds, at the back of Brightlingsea Hall (the water having been
let out on August 4th), when they laid bare an open nest made roughly of reeds
and so placed as to be just above the water level when the pool was full. In it
were several young otters about 9in. long, and quite blind, one of which they
brought in. The colour was that of a young mouse, with nose and ears pink,
and claws very sharp. We tried our best to keep it alive, but, in spite of warm
milk given many times a day, it died on the 26th. I have known several cases
(in Essex) of otters breeding in holes, but never in the open. The only fish
supply at hand would be eels—unless the old otters visited a salt water creek,
containing flat fish and smelts, about half a mile distant." In a subsequent
letter Mr. Bateman says : "I think I saw the bitch otter, or her spouse, on the
Sunday after the young one's death, but could not be quite sure. Anyhow, we
have never re-discovered where she has laid the young up."—The editor of the
"Field" states that, considering the situation and the materials, it seems likely
that the old otter may have appropriated the nest of a moorhen.
3 In a note in the "Zoologist" for September, 1893, Mr. Webb gives some references not
included in his paper, and mentions Mr. W. E. Collinge's paper "On the Generative System in
the Genus Testacella," "Ann. Mag. N. H." vol. xii. (1893), p. 21, which bears out the statement
as to the distribution of Testacella scutulum.