10 



THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



see if any of the big fish were rising, and we were standing 

 very still under the shadow of an old pollard willow-tree, 

 when we saw something swimming across the river, making 

 a considerable wave, to the opposite bank. It was bright 

 moonlight, and we saw at once it was the otter (we knew 

 he frequented these parts) ; he half got out amongst the 

 reeds, and then with a silent plunge dived again. When 

 he came up he was close on our side, and he immediately 

 spotted us, threw up his head for a second to be certain, 

 and then at once dived and was away. Some naturalists 

 assert that the otter, from the peculiar position of his eyes, 

 cannot take a fish except in deep water, because he must be 

 under the fish before he can see him ; but we have found 

 the remains of trout on the bank of very shallow streams a 

 long way from any deep water. 



THE WEASEL. 



Of the same family as the otter (Mustelidce), that very rest- 

 less and lively little animal the WEASEL (Mustela vulgaris) 

 is very frequently seen on the river-banks, especially where 

 there are bushes, old stumps of willows and alders, running 

 in and out amongst the roots, climbing along the bushes, 

 now half-way up the stem of an old willow, now dis- 

 appearing in a rabbit-hole or in the thick vegetation, hard 

 at work searching for its prey, which chiefly consists of 

 rats and mice, with occasionally a young rabbit. Not that 

 it is at all squeamish if it comes across a nest of eggs or of 

 young birds, having a particular propensity to suck eggs 

 and swallow tender morsels. 



