COMMON OTTER* 441 



** Si nidum tenerosque ferae deprendere pullos 

 Contigit; absent! sobolem furabere matri; 

 Et dum mollis adhuc aetas facilisque doceri, 

 Piscandi cicurem Lutram formabis ad artes : 

 Namque ubi transverso steterint suspensa fluento 

 Lina 5 cavernosos rimabitur ilia recessus, 

 Ejectos specubus pisces in retia trudensj 

 Ut canis excitos agit in venabula cervos, 

 Et leporum presso sequitur vestigia rostro." 



" Should chance, within their dark recess, betray 

 The tender young, bear quick the prize away. 

 Tam'd by thy care, the useful brood shall join 

 The wat'ry chace, and add their toils to thine $ 

 From each close lurking-hole shall force away 

 And drive within thy nets the silver prey : 

 As the taught hound the timid stag subdues, 

 Or o'er the dewy plain the panting hare pursues." 



Lastly, The Count de Buffon himself, in his 

 sixth supplemental volume, retracts his scepticism 

 on this subject, and has published a letter from 

 the Marquis de Courtivron relative to a tame 

 Otter kept in an abbey at Autun, in the year 

 1775, &c. This Otter was a female, and had 

 been taken extremely young, and reared with 

 milk till it was two months old, when it was fed 

 with soup, fruits, pulse, meat, fish, c. which 

 latter, however, it would not eat unless perfectly 

 fresh. It was as tame as a dog, and would come 

 whenever it was called by its name. It would 

 also play with a dog and cat with which it had 

 been early acquainted, but shewed great animo- 

 sity against other dogs and cats which happened 

 to approach it. This Otter chiefly inhabited a 



v. j. p. ii. 29 



