4 THE LIFE STORY OF AN OTTER 



snatched another forty winks. But as morning 

 after morning passed without intrusion of aught 

 to wan-ant her suspicions, her vigilance gradually 

 relaxed ; and one noon, when she was very weary 

 from the night's foraging, she curled up and fell 

 sound asleep at her post. 



Whilst she slept, a buzzard, mewing as he 

 quartered the ground beneath, espied the cubs, 

 and thinking they were at his mercy, stooped to 

 seize the easy prey. He was about to lay hold 

 of the smaller cub when the otter, awakened by 

 the strange cry, rose from her hiding-place and 

 confronted him. At sight of her the bird, taken 

 aback, thought only of escape, but the mother 

 was bent on avenging the attempted wrong. 

 Quick as lightning she sprang at him, and, had 

 not the hummock given way beneath her, she 

 must have gripped him despite the frantic down- 

 strokes of the big wings which lifted him well 

 beyond her second leap. Her fierce eyes and 

 bristling hair made her terrible to behold as she 

 stood watching the marauder's retreat, and hissing 

 the while like a fury. Then, as if fearful that the 

 fray had attracted attention, she took her eyes off 

 the bird and scrutinized the approaches to the 

 morass before removing the cubs to the nest, where 

 she stilled their complaints by fondling them until 



