THE COMMON OTTER. 195 



conformation it is that he is enabled to remain for 

 a considerable while together under water. Mr. 

 Stackhouse, who has attended a good deal to the 

 manners of the Otter, is of opinion, that one of 

 these animals, in perfect health, might continue 

 submersed for fifteen or twenty minutes, without 

 injury. He informs me that a gentleman of his 

 acquaintance once caught,, in a trammel net, in the 

 river Wye, a large Otter, which, when taken out, 

 was found to be quite dead. The animal had 

 been drowned, from not having had breath enough 

 left to serve whilst he gnawed for himself a passage 

 through the meshes. 



The habitation of the Otter, according to in- 

 formation that I have received from different per- 

 sons of veracity and observation, is seldom the 

 entire production of his own labour. I am told 

 that he adopts, as the place of his residence, any 

 hole, convenient for his purpose, which he finds 

 under the roots of trees, or in the clefts of rocks, 

 near the water ; that this retreat is always infected 

 with the stench of putrid fish; that, near the outlet 

 there are scattered the heads, bones, and oftentimes 

 corrupted parts of the bodies offish ; **and that the 

 track to the den is often trodden like a common 

 path-way. Mr. Pennant gives a somewhat dif- 

 ferent account. He says that this animal constructs 

 its own den. That it burrows under-grQund in the 

 bank of some river or lake ; and that it always 

 makes the entrance of its hole under water, work- 



O 2 ing 



