RANGE 



820 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



streams that abound with fish, and that are much varied in 

 bank and bed by pools, rapids, log-jams, and overhanging 

 rocky banks. It never lives far from the water, and in summer- 

 time never goes far overland, but in winter its habit changes 

 somewhat. Then "it frequents rapids and falls, to have the 

 advantage of open water; and when its usual haunts are 

 frozen over, it will travel to a great distance through the snow 

 in search of a rapid that has resisted the severity of the 

 weather."^ {Richardson.) 



HOME- All trappers agree that the Canada Otter is a wide-ranging 



animal. The evidence goes to show that its habits bear a close 

 resemblance to those of its British congener, and as this latter 

 has been closely studied by many naturalists, it may well fur- 

 nish important side-light. 



In Great Britain, it is well known to be a far traveller. 

 T. W. Proger, of Cardiff, writes me: "I have known one to 

 go 5 or 6 miles overland in a single night to a stream that 

 promised good fishing. An Otter will range for 25 miles up 

 and down a given river; and the scarcer the fish the farther he 

 wanders." 



Merriam gives' a number of illustrations which tend to 

 show that each Otter in the Adirondacks has a certain route 

 or range that is his own little kingdom. Up this river to that 

 branch, along that to the swamp, then across over the divide 

 and down some rill to another river, along which it continues 

 till another landmark, or possibly owner-mark of a rival, 

 warns him that here he must turn and cross by that pond or 

 the old fiimiliar rapid, to the point of beginning. This 

 may take him two weeks to cover, and may be 50 miles in 

 length. 



Kennicott credits* the Otter with following not merely a 

 general course, but an exact pathway. He says: "In Minne- 

 sota, I observed across a narrow isthmus separating two lakes 

 a well-worn path, which had evidently been formed by Otter, 



» F. B. A., 1829, I, p. 57. ' Mam. .'\dir., 1S84, p. 88 



* Quad. 111., 1859, p. 247. 



