NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



its activities, shy of repeating itself, shifty in its 

 hunting, and very thoroughly at home in the water 

 as well as on land. Mr. Tregarthen calls attention 

 also to the faintness of the otter's scent, " noticed 

 by few dogs save hounds that have been trained to 

 own it," and to its resourcefulness and endurance 

 when hunted. Part of the secret of survival must 

 also lie in variety of its food, for while it depends 

 in the main on eels, trout, salmon, pike, flatfish, 

 and the like, it condescends to the mussels on the 

 seashore (biting through their shells), the limpets 

 on the rocks, and the frogs on the marsh, and rises 

 to wild- duck and rabbit. 



One of the admirable qualities of the otter is its 

 parental, especially its maternal, care. The young 

 ones blind and downy are born in a soft-lined 

 nest under the shelter of a bank difficult to get at ; 

 the mother will at first hardly leave them save on 

 rushes after the food necessary to keep up the supply 

 of milk. To guard them she sleeps, like many a 

 human mother, with at least one ear awake. When 

 they open their eyes she cautiously carries them to 

 bask for a while in the winter sunshine, for they are 

 usually born in midwinter. When they can clamber 

 she teaches them the woodcraft of the neighbourhood 

 and the complete alphabet of the sounds that mean 

 danger. With her teeth she punishes disobedient 

 foolhardiness especially on the part of the male 

 cubs yet she shares in their frolics when danger 

 is distant. When they are a little over eight weeks 

 old and able to follow her afield, she takes them to 

 a quiet pool and teaches them to swim. In about 



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