152 Mammatia OF INDIA. 
obscuring by a semi-transparent membrane, which none of the marine 
carnivora possess, though their eyes are somewhat formed for seeing 
better under water than when exposed to the full light above. Some 
idea of the rapidity of these animals in the water may be conceived 
when we think that their food is almost exclusively fish, of which they 
sometimes kill more than they can eat. They reside in burrows, making 
the entrance under water, and working upwards, making a small hole 
for the ventilation of their chamber. The female has about four or five: 
young ones at a time, after a period of gestation of about nine weeks, 
and the mother very soon drives them forth to shift for themselves in the 
water. 
For a pretty picture of young otters at play in the water, nothing 
could be better than the following description from Kingsley’s ‘ Water 
Babies’ :— 
“Suddenly Tom heard the strangest noise up the stream—cooing, 
grunting, and whining, and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two 
stock-doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, and left 
them there to settle themselves and make music. He looked up the 
water, and there he saw a sight as strange as the noise: a great ball 
rolling over and over down the stream, seeming one moment of soft 
brown fur ; and the next of shining glass, and yet it was not a ball, for 
sometimes it broke up and streamed away in pieces, and then it joined 
again ; and all the while the noise came out of it louder and louder. 
Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be: but of course with his. 
short sight he could not even see it, though it was not ten yards away. 
So he took the neatest little header into the water, and started off to see 
for himself ; and when he came near, the ball turned out to be four or 
five beautiful creatures, many times larger than Tom, who were 
swimming about, and rolling, and diving, and twisting, and wrestling, 
and cuddling, and kissing, and biting, and scratching, in the most 
charming fashion that ever was seen. And if you don’t believe me you 
may go to the Zoological Gardens (for I am afraid you won't see it 
nearer, unless, perhaps, you get up at five in the morning, and go down 
to Cordery’s Moor, and watch by the great withy pollard which hangs 
over the back-water, where the otters breed sometimes), and then say if 
otters at play in the water are not the merriest, lithest, gracefullest 
creatures you ever saw.” 
Professor Parker, who also notices Kingsley’s description,* states 
that the Canadian otter has a peculiar habit in winter of sliding 
down ridges of snow, apparently for amusement. It, with its com- 
panions, scambles up a high ridge, and then, lying down flat, glides head- 
foremost down the declivity, sometimes for a distance of twenty yards. 
_* Infact it was his quotation that induced me to buy a copy of that most charming, 
little book, which I recommend every one to read.—R. A. 5S. 
