OTTERS. 65 



Thus trained, in process of time the otter becomes 

 useful and domesticated. 



In their natural condition otters will wander to con- 

 siderable distances for their prey. Mr. St. John says, 

 4 1 was rather amused at an old woman living at Sluie 

 on the Findhorn, who, complaining of the hardness of 

 the present times, when " a puir body couldna get 

 a drop smuggled whisky, or shoot a roe without his 

 lordship's sportsman finding it out," added to her list 

 of grievances, that even the otters were nearly all gone, 

 " puir beasties." " Well, but what good could the 

 otters do you ? " I asked her. " Good, your honour ! 

 why, scarcely a morn came but they left a bonny grilse 

 (young salmon) on the scarp down yonder, and the 

 vennison was none the worse of the bit the puir beasties 

 ate themselves." The people here (Morayshire) call 

 every eatable animal, fish, flesh, or fowl, venison, or as 

 they pronounce it, vennison. For instance, they tell 

 you that the snipes are good vennison, or that the trout 

 are not good vennison in the winter. 



' It seems that a few years ago, before the otters had 

 been so much destroyed, the people in particular parts 

 of the river were never at a loss for salmon, as the 

 otters always took them ashore, generally to the same 

 bank or rock, and in seasons of plenty they only ate a 

 small piece out of the shoulder, leaving the rest un- 

 touched, and the cottagers, aware of this, searched 

 every morning for their leavings.' 



4 Otters,' continues Mr. St. John, ' are very affec- 

 tionate animals ; the young anxiously seek their mother 

 if she should be killed ; and if the young are injured, 

 the parent hovers near them till she is herself destroyed. 

 It' one of a pair be killed, the one that is left will hunt 

 E 



