OTTER'S HAUNTS AND HABITS 



In an article comparing the badger and the otter, 

 it says, " The otter, on the other hand, though an 

 expert swimmer, is on land nearly as clumsy as his 

 cousin the badger." The author of the said article 

 can have done little or no otter-hunting, for if he 

 had, he would never have made such a foolish 

 statement. Despite his webbed feet, the otter 

 is built like the weasels, and exhibits a great deal 

 of their activity and quickness on land. For this 

 reason he is well able to cope with furred and 

 feathered quarry. 



Beginning the otter's menu with fish, we find he 

 eats salmon, sea trout, trout, and coarse fish. On 

 the west of Scotland and in the Hebrides, otters 

 live a good deal on the coast, but in the autumn 

 they follow the salmon up the streams. Where 

 salmon are plentiful and easily secured, otters kill 

 a fish, take it ashore, and eat a portion of the 

 shoulder only. In the old days in the Highlands, 

 when otters were more numerous than they are at 

 present, the crofters used regularly to visit the 



otters' landing places, in order to gather the salmon 



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