THE OTTER 343 



along under the ice for fifty or sixty yards, and bump their 

 heads up against the glaze, breaking a hole from seven to ten 

 inches in width, and this in ice up to three-quarters of an 

 inch in thickness. Should the ice be clear and brittle, these 

 blow-holes will be larger. In wintry weather, it is evident 

 by their trails that they seldom go more than twice or thrice 

 in the same direction, for they soon tread a path — half-a- 

 dozen journeys being ample to lay a path. 



And the most poetical time of the otter's life is mayhap 

 in the early spring, when he lies in his warm reed-leaf nest, 

 cosily hidden in the hot moist thicket of budding sallows and 

 white-sprayed blackthorn, listening to the rustling of the 

 tall, pale, dead grasses round him, or to the buzzing of the 

 black and yellow bees, and the blue-tits' song as they hunt 

 over the sweet-scented sallow buds for pollen and insects ; 

 and mayhap too they hear the red-legs calling from afar 

 across the level green marshlands. 



