OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 103 



servant persons is occasionally arrested by the spectacle of 

 a partly eaten fish lying on the bank. The otter first 

 begins to eat those parts about the head, except when 

 dealing with an eel, when it commences with the tail end. 



Because of its cautious and secret manner of life, an 

 otter will often continue to frequent a stream for a long 

 time, and be unsuspected. Indeed many a stream has 

 held otters from time immemorial, and yet no one has 

 guessed this, until the coming of a pack of otter-hounds 

 has ' shown the varmint up.' Even that omniscient 

 person, the dusty miller, in spite of his peculiar oppor- 

 tunities, was scarcely prepared to find in the thatch of 

 his own outhouse one of its favourite sleeping-places. 

 Yes, otters often choose strange quarters, and though 

 their usual ' holts ' are drains, caves, rocks, holes under 

 tree roots, and withy beds, we have known one to frequent 

 an ivied tree, and have bolted another from under a 

 barn floor. 



The hounds throw light on obscure points like these, 

 and by attentively observing the behaviour of hounds 

 much may be learnt. 



No spear is ever used in this hunting — that barbarism 

 has long died out ; either the quarry goes scot free, or 

 there is an honest kill by hounds. Every one is familiar 

 from the engravings with the look of traditional otter- 

 hounds. But alas, that picturesque animal, with his wiry 

 coat, shaggy eyebrows, long ears and deep bell-like voice, 

 is now in a minority in many packs. It is a pity that 



