MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 133 



supply of fish, it has been known to resort far inland, to the 

 neighbourhood of the farm -yard, and attack lambs, sucking 

 pigs, and poultry, thus assuming for a time the habits of its 

 more terrestrial congeners. " I am not aware that such extrav- 

 agant statements have been made, with any authority at least, 

 respecting the American Otter; and indeed one has only to 

 regard the general configuration of the animal, and particu- 

 larly the shape of the fore limbs and condition of the claws, to 

 become convinced that the mining operations of the animal 

 are necessarily limited. It does not appear that the under- 

 ground retreats of the Otter are consiructed with the skill and 

 ingenuity of even those of the Muskrat. A retreat examined 

 by Audubon has been thus described by this author: 



"One morning we observed that some of these animals re- 

 sorted to the neighbourhood of the root of a large tree which 

 stood on the side of the pond opposite to us, and with its over- 

 hanging branches shaded the water. After a fatiguing walk 

 through the tangled cane brake and thick under- wood which 

 bordered the sides of this lonely place, we reached the opposite 

 side of the pond near the large tree, and moved cautiously 

 through the mud and water to its roots: but the hearing or 

 sight of the Otters was attracted to us, and we saw several of 

 them hastily make off at our approach. On sounding the tree 

 with the butt of our gun, we discovered that it was hollow r , and 

 then having placed a large stick in a slanting position against 

 the trunk, we succeeded in reaching the lowest bough, and 

 thence climbed up to a broken branch from which an aperture 

 into the upper part of the hollow enabled us to examine the 

 interior. At the bottom there was quite a large space or cham- 

 ber to which the Otters retired, but whether for security or to 

 sleep we could not decide. Next morning we returned to the 

 spot, accompanied by one of our neighbours, and having ap- 

 proached and stopped up the entrance under water as noise- 

 lessly as possible, we cut a hole in the side of the tree four or 

 five feet from the ground, and as soon as it was large enough 

 to admit our heads, we peeped in and discovered three Otters 

 on a sort of bed composed of the inner bark of trees and other 

 soft substances, such as water grasses. We continued cutting 

 the hole we had made larger, and when sufficiently widened, 

 took some green saplings, split them at the but-end, and man- 

 aged to fix the head of each animal firmly to the ground by 

 passing one of these split pieces over his neck, and then press- 

 ing the stick forcibly downwards. Our companion then crept 



