CHAPTER II 



THE OTTER'S HAUNTS AND HABITS 



As mentioned in the previous chapter, otter cubs 

 may be born in any month of the year. Prior to 

 laying down her young, the bitch otter selects a 

 couch in the vicinity of good feeding ground. 

 Her choice of a retreat will vary with the locality 

 in which she happens to be at the time. In the 

 low country her cubs may be laid down in a dry 

 drain in the meadows, where frogs are plentiful, 

 and the ditches contain a supply of eels, or amongst 

 the brushwood in some large covert, where the 

 ground is swampy, and through which one or two 

 small runners meander on their way to join the 

 parent stream. In the north, where the rivers are 

 swift and rocky, the cubs may first see the light of 



day in some cairn or pile of boulders, situated high 



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