OTTERS 51 



lay at full length to devour their take. After 

 fishing for nearly half an hour the animals fell 

 to playing, now in the water, now on the bank, 

 at times even in the open spaces among the 

 bushes. From one of these the cubs espied the 

 leveret. At once ceasing their gambols, they 

 watched him nibble the herbage, their nostrils 

 working all the time. The leveret, who showed 

 no fear of the strange, short-legged creatures, 

 was still feeding when the otter recalled her 

 cubs and led them up the stream, but he was 

 nearly satisfied, and shortly made his way along 

 the dam and up the opposite hill to the downs, 

 over which he kept wandering and wandering 

 as if in search of a seat. Yet this was not his 

 object. He had already made up his mind 

 where he would pass the coming day, took the 

 hint from a homing badger that it was time to 

 be ensconced, returned to the valley, and hid 

 amongst the rushes bordering the mill-pool, at a 

 spot almost midway between the inflow and the 

 hatch. 



He had hardly settled down when the otter 

 and her cubs hurried by along the opposite 

 bank, on their way to a reedy marsh a mile 

 above. Then all was quiet till, at peep of day, 

 a kingfisher came and fished from a branch 

 of the alder overhanging the inflow; the tinkle 



