the occipital region strongly developed, and the whole character is very similar to
that of the seals, and, as in these animals, the intestine is long. As in the badger,
the jaws in adults interlock, and the molar teeth have sharp tubercles well adapted
to retain their slippery prey. The gullet is small. B e ll1 gives the dental
formula as follows: ‘ 1. f ; C. P.M. * ; M. f ; but it is now generally
acknowledged that there are four pairs of premolars in the upper jaw, the first
being very small and sometimes absent in adults, and three pairs in the lower
jaw ; there is one pair of true molars in the upper jaw, very large and powerful,
and two pairs in the lower jaw. The fourth premolar is a large tooth with a
three-cusped edge. This alters the dental formula to P.M. f ; M. f.
Under the root of the tail there is the usual small gland secreting a fcetid
liquid. The male possesses a penial bone and the female three pairs of teats,2
though only two pairs may be in milk at one time.
Otters vary considerably in size—a circumstance not necessarily dependent
on either age or sex, although males are usually longer than females. The Hon.
R. Hill has given the average weight of the Otter as : dogs, 20 lb. to 25 lb. ;
bitches, 15 lb. to 18 lb., and these weights are very general amongst adult
Otters throughout Britain. A 40-lb. Otter is recorded by Pennant as having been
killed in the river Lea, but this weight has been doubted.
Captain E. F. Oakley, writing in the ‘ Field,’ 8 s ay s : ‘ The accepted record
weight for an Otter is, I believe, 38 lb., but I have one in my possession, stuffed
by Messrs. Rowland Ward, which weighed 42 lb. (wet in a sack), say 40 lb,
Messrs. Rowland Ward were unable to accept this as an authenticated record
owing to the lack of witnesses, but said the measurements were larger than those
of the Otter which weighed 38 lb. As a matter of fact I am satisfied myself
that the weight was genuine, since my keeper, a most reliable man, weighed it
twice carefully. He trapped it on the Spencer’s Oak fishing on the Blackwater in
the spring of 1898, underneath the big rock on the left bank.’
An Otter said to weigh 53 lb. and a few ounces, and recorded in the
‘ Zoologist,’ 4 is of such extraordinary dimensions that it cannot be accepted on the
1 Brit. Quad. 2nd ed. p. 181.
2 Mr. Thos. Southwell says (Field, Dec. 19, 1903): ‘ As to the number of mammas: I examined one killed on Nov. 24,
1876, which had three teats on each side (six in all), and all distended with milk. On Oct. 26, 1880, a bitch had four teats in
milk. On Jan. 4, 1883, one from Weybridge had four teats in milk, and on Jan. 13, 1887, yet another had four teats in milk.
The teats are very inconspicuous if not in use, and if the brood does not consist of more than two young ones it is probable
that only two will be in milk; but should there be only a single pair and the statement be correct that the brood occasionally
consists of five, some of the young ones would come badly off.’
* June 27, 1903. 4 1873. P- 3487.