THE SURVIVAL OF THE OTTER 121 



sight, hearing, touch, and smell, its muscular equip- 

 ment, so marked in the grip of its jaw, the back- 

 stroke of the hind-legs, and the sweep of the steering 

 tail, for the mammals we mentioned above are not 

 deficient in these qualities, and yet they have 

 nowadays a tenure of life much less secure than 

 the otter's. 



What particular virtues has the otter that enable 

 it to keep its foothold in spite of man's persecution 

 and the reduction of natural preserves? The 

 general answer is probably that the otter has rela- 

 tively few wild enemies, and that it is one of the 

 most elusive of beasts, in great part nocturnal in 

 its activities, shy of repeating itself, shifty in its 

 hunting, and very thoroughly amphibious. 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 re- 

 sourcefulness and endurance when hunted. Part of 

 the secret of survival must also lie in the catholicity 

 of appetite, for while the otter 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. It must also be remembered, as in regard 

 to fox-hunting, that whatever be our humanitarian 

 or artistic views in regard to the otter-hunt, the 

 probability is that sportsmen, who leave the cubs 

 unmolested, make for the otter's survival rather 

 than for its disappearance. The aegis of sport 



