Natural History 487 



rough hairs. On a somewhat different line are the cases where 

 the mother takes a young one in her mouth and transports it to a 

 place of safety. This is familiar in the case of a cat and her 

 kittens, but the squirrel may also shift her young when danger 

 threatens. 



In some cases the instruction given by the mother is an im- 

 portant factor in securing the survival of the young ones, and 

 therefore of the race. Thus the Badger instructs its offspring in 

 the art of being elusive and in the diverse ways of securing food. 

 Even better known is the Otter's schooling, for the young are 

 taught all the alphabet of country sounds, how to dive without 

 splashing, how to lie hiding under the bank without betraying 

 themselves, how to catch frogs and skin them, how to guddle for 

 trout and eels, how to eat the eel from the tail and the trout from 

 the head, how to deal with rabbit and moorhen, and how to find 

 their way home without returning on their outgoing track. No 

 doubt there is hereditary instinctive endowment, but there is 

 teaching as well. 



15 

 The Story of the Otter 



The Otter (Lutra vulgaris) is one of the most elusive of 

 mammals, in great part nocturnal, shy of repeating itself or re- 

 turning on its tracks, shifting in its hunting, and very thoroughly 

 amphibious. It is much commoner in Britain than is generally 

 supposed. Part of the secret of its survival we have already re- 

 ferred to namely, the training which the mother gives to her 

 offspring, but there is more. Thus it is always an advantage to 

 have a catholic appetite, and while the otter depends mainly on 

 fishes, it condescends to eat the mussels and limpets on the sea- 

 shore and the frogs in the marsh; and, of course, it rises to wild 

 duck and rabbit. Another feature of survival value is the otter's 

 nomadism. In his fine study, The Life Story of the Otter ( 1915) , 

 Mr. Tregarthen calls it "the homeless hunter," "the Bedouin of 



