378 EASILY DOMESTICATED. 



some years ngo to the distinguished Swedish naturalist 

 M. Ekstroin, I myself saw an Otter af the Parsonage 

 that, in like manner with a cat or dog, had the run of 

 the house, and more than once during the night-time I 

 heard it at my hed-room door. It had also free access to 

 the garden, in which was a pond, where it often disported. 

 It would allow itself to be handled by those with 

 whom it was acquainted, and to one of the dogs on tlie 

 premises it was ^aid to evince a particular attachment. 

 This Otter had been captured when quite young, and at 

 the time I speak of was upwards of a year old. 



Many other instances are on record of the extreme 

 docility of the Otter. M. Boje tells us, for instance, that 

 " the proprietor of Krako, in Norway, had one, taken when 

 quite young and brought up by hand, that had become 

 a perfect hus-djur, or house-animal. In the daytime it 

 slept under a wood pile, but of an evening was the 

 constant companion of the great yard-dog. When in a 

 room it would leap over seats and tables. Nothing was 

 given it in the house, and it was therefore obliged to fish 

 for itself in the lake." 



Again : " Whilst a party were shooting young Ducks 

 at Jacobsberg, in Sodermanland, the property of M. Watt- 

 rang," says the President M. af Robson, " a pointer bitch 

 came to her master carefully bearing in her mouth a very 

 small living Otter cub. It was carried home and reared, 

 but had no opportunity of resorting to the water. It 

 became perfectly tame, and gladly followed its owner 

 everywhere. It would eat almost anything, and expressed 

 special pleasure if offered tea ; but if, w'hilst lap2iing the 

 liquid, it was handled or caressed, it would frdsa, or hiss 

 fiercely. It was particularly cleanly in its habits, and 

 always relieved nature in a certain spittoon ; and 

 whenever this was presented to it, as for the sake of 

 fun was often the case, it was always ready to make a 



