184 



MUSTELID^!. 



easily recognized by their peculiar web-footed tracks on the sand 

 or mud. 



To a considerable extent otters are nocturnal, but in wild coun- 

 tries they are by no means exclusively so. I have repeatedly seen 

 them hunting in rivers up to 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning and 

 again in the afternoon long before sunset. They live chiefly upon 

 fish, Crustacea, and frogs, and, as is well known, when they find 

 food plentiful, kill far more than they require to eat. They are 

 said occasionally to attack waterfowl, and to eat the eggs of birds, 

 and in all probability they are, if hungry, not particular ; I once 

 came upon a party that were pulling about a small crocodile, but I 

 cannot say whether they had killed it. Their movements in the 

 water are exceedingly rapid and graceful, and they can run with 

 considerable speed on laud. In fishing, otters act in concert and 

 surround or drive a shoal of fish. Colonel McMaster, in his ' Notes 

 on Jerdon,' describes an instance in which he saw this done in the 

 Chilka Lake. The otters, at least six in number, swam out in a 

 semicircle, with an interval of about fifty yards between each two. 

 " Every now and then an otter would disappear, and generally when 

 it was seen again it was well within the semicircle with a fish 

 in its jaws, caught more for pleasure than for profit," as the fish 

 were always left untouched after a single bite. 



Fig. 48. Skull of Lutra vulgaris. (L. nair, Anderson, An. Zool. Res.) 



The hearing and sense of smell in otters are well developed ; 

 but I am inclined to think them not very sharp of sight. They 

 are very intelligent and cunning. Their usual cry is a sharp yelp, 

 which they utter when excited or surprised. They are also said to 

 make a whistling sound as a note of alarm. 



I cannot find anything recorded about the breeding of otters in 

 India. In Europe they have frequently bred in confinement 

 (P. Z. S. 1881, p. 249). They sometimes, at all events, pair in the 



