THE OTTER. 17 



The female is said by Mr. Bell to go with young 

 nine weeks, and to produce from three to five young 

 ones in March or April. I cannot confirm or refute 

 these assertions, but I have examined an individual 

 so young as to be still sucking, without the lower 

 incisors, and only 20 J inches in length, which was 

 killed near the top of the river Don on the 25th of 

 November. At this early age the head is round and 

 flattened, the eyes placed so near the nostrils that 

 three lines drawn, the first from one eye to the other, 

 the second and third from each eye to the middle 

 joint between the nostrils, form an equilateral triangle. 

 The hair of the lips and face is shorter and stronger 

 than elsewhere, and of a grayish colour ; under the 

 nostrils are two nearly contiguous yellowish spots ; 

 the claws are very acute, the tail proportionately 

 shorter and depressedly conical ; the general colour 

 sooty-brown. 



A gentleman residing in Berneray, in the Outer 

 Hebrides,had an otter that supplied itself with food,and 

 regularly returned to the house. Mr. McDiarmid, in 

 his amusing " Sketches from Nature," gives an account 

 of several domesticated otters, one of which belonged 

 to a poor widow, which " when led forth plunged into 

 the Urr, or the neighbouring burns, and brought out all 

 the fish it could find." Another, kept at Crosbie 

 House, Wigtonshire, evinced a great fondness for 

 gooseberries, fondled about its keeper's feet like a 

 pup or kitten, and even seemed inclined to salute her 

 cheek, when permitted to carry its freedoms so far. 

 A third, belonging to Mr. Monteith, of Carstairs, was 

 also very tame ; and though it frequently stole away 

 c 



