COMMON OTTER. 179 



Equilateral triangle. The hair of the lips and face 

 shorter and stronger than elsewhere, and of a 

 greyish colour ; under the nostrils are two nearly 

 Contiguous yellowish spots ; the claws very acute, 

 Ihe tail proportionally shorter, and depressedly 

 conical ; the general colour sooty-brown, the lower 

 parts a little lighter. When taken young, the 

 Otter may be tamed, and even taught to fish for 

 itself, or rather will, if permitted, exercise its natural 

 instinct. A gentleman residing in Berneray, in the 

 Outer Hebrides, had one that supplied itself with 

 food, and regularly returned to the house. Mr 

 M'Diarmid, in his amusing " Sketches from Na- 

 ture," gives an account of several domesticated 

 Otters, one of which, belonging to a poor widow, 

 14 when led forth, plunged into the Urr or the 

 neighbouring burns, and brought out all the fish it 

 could find." Another, kept at Corsbie House, 

 Wigtonshire, "evinced a great fondness for goose- 

 berries," fondled "about her keeper's feet like a 

 pup or kitten, and even seemed inclined to salute 

 her cheek, when permitted to carry her freedoms so 

 far." A third, belonging to Mr Monteith of Car- 

 stairs, was also very tame, " and, though he fre- 

 quently stole away at night to fish by the pale light 

 of the moon, and associate with his kindred by the 

 river side, his master, of course, was too generous 

 to find any fault with his peculiar mode of spending 

 nis evening hours. In the morning he was always 

 at his post in the kennel, and no animal understood 

 better the secret of 'keeping his own side of the 



