NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 85 
Se ns ra eae sg Ne laa ae oo a 
least disposed towards water ; and will not, when they can avoid it, 
deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element. 
Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious : such is the otter, 
which by nature is so well formed for diving that it makes great 
OTTER. 
havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that we 
had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much pleased 
to see a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that 
had been shot on the bank of our stream below the Priory, where 
the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley Wood. 
