CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 263 



mals are likely to remain perfectly neat and 

 healthy and they will breed regularly and grow 

 fine coats. The best should always be kept for 

 breeding, and so the stock will be steadily 

 improved. 



The beautiful otter. The noble and beauti- 

 ful otter has become so rare south of the north- 

 ern wilderness, or outside of large tracts of 

 southern swamp-lands, that it has little claim 

 to inclusion in a book devoted to the industrial 

 aspects of our wild quadrupeds. The food of 

 otters is mainly fish ; and in a preserved stream 

 they may do vast damage to the angler's 

 treasures by devouring numberless trout. 

 They also catch and kill many muskrats. 

 Merriam, in his natural history of the Adiron- 

 dacks, and Seton in his Northern Mammals, 

 give extensive biographies of this most inter- 

 esting and most intelligent of the mustelid 

 race. 



This brings us to the related group of fur- 

 bearers which includes the badgers and skunks. 



The misunderstood badger. Our badger is 

 very similar to the European one, and formerly 

 occurred wherever west of the Alleghanies un- 



