PREFACE 



The otter has long seemed to me worthy of 

 serious attention, if only for the successful 

 struggle it has waged against those extermin- 

 ating agencies under which the badger, the wild- 

 cat, the polecat and the marten have all but 

 succumbed. 



Its survival throughout Great Britain is due, 

 partly to its endurance and resources when 

 hunted, partly to qualities and habits which 

 differentiate it from the other creatures of the 

 wild. Its scent, for instance, unlike that of fox 

 or badger, to which every tike and lurcher will 

 stoop, is noticed by few dogs save hounds that 

 have been trained to own it ; and the outlawed 

 beast thus gains a certain immunity from destruc- 

 tion. 



Then the otter is a great wanderer, who not 

 only traverses long stretches of coast and follows 

 streams and rivers to their source, but crosses 

 hills and even mountains to reach its fishing- 



vii h 



