I02 OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 



tells you the otters are moving, excepting a whistled 

 call which comes now and then from the reed-beds. 

 Masterly as the otter is in the water, supreme as are 

 its powers of swimming and diving, it no more cares 

 for unnecessary hard work, in its hunting than other 

 animals. When going up stream, especially if the current 

 is swift, it frequently lands, and often cuts the bend of 

 the stream by travelling across the land from corner to 

 corner. A practised eye will easily notice these spots 

 where the otter lands and runs up the bank ; for otters, 

 like most other wild creatures, follow one another's lead. 

 Causes which the eyes of human beings may not 

 detect are no doubt answerable for the claims of one 

 landing-place over another. It may be the set of the 

 eddy from a half-sunk willow stub, the angle at which 

 the bank rises, the chances of cover and concealment — any 

 one or all of fifty points may determine the advantages 

 of a particular landing-place ; but at all events, if otters 

 are abundant, it will be paddled into a regular run. Here 

 you will see the otter's footprints in the mud, the prints 

 of four round toes like no other creature's track. This 

 footprint is called by otter hunters, the ' seal.' Other 

 signs, such as remains of digested food (in hunting parlance 

 ' spraints '), will be noticed on hillocks of the grass or on 

 stones which show themselves above the water. 



Although some streams are more favoured than others, 

 there is probably not one in the country that is not 

 visited at times by otters, and the attention of even unob- 



