THE SURVIVAL OF THE OTTER 125 



There are savage fights between two dog-otters who 

 desire the same mate, and the strength of the parents 

 is often severely taxed in providing for the young; 

 but the main struggle for existence among these 

 sharp-toothed, strong-jawed beasts of prey is not 

 in any infra-specific competition, but in circumvent- 

 ing difficulties and in securing food. 



The severest of tests is a hard and prolonged frost. 

 At first it gives an added spice to life, for strings of 

 wild-fowl arrive and the ice on the mere is a rare 

 playground. It is possible for the otter to hunt 

 for pike beneath the ice, for eels and tench buried 

 deep in the mud. But there is circumstantial 

 evidence of terrible experiences when the breathing 

 holes in the ice freeze quickly and the otter is apt 

 to be imprisoned below, when the parents are 

 tied down by cubs too heavy to carry and not 

 strong enough to travel, when the wild- fowl leave 

 the sealed waters for the shore, when the snow 

 threatens to smother the family. It is only in 

 such straits that the otter, in desperation, begins 

 to experiment by nights with the farmer's ducks. 

 This last resource is very restricted, however, and 

 the conditions may prove too severe, the mother at 

 last succumbing to her efforts to get food for herself 

 and her offspring. "At Mullion, in Mount's Bay, 

 one bitterly cold December, when the Poldhu 

 stream was frozen and the sea too rough and dis- 

 colored for the otter to fish, the poor creature 

 in her extremity crept into a bungalow in the 

 course of erection, and was there found curled up 



