138 Lloyd's natural history. 



Salmon, which may be the case when it inhabits rivers and 

 estuaries, but in the open sea it feeds on a variety of fishes. 

 Along the coast it generally finds a safe retreat in caves, of 

 which the upper part is filled with blocks of rock, or beneath 

 large stones; but in rivers and lakes it seeks refuge among 

 the roots of trees, or burrows a hole for itself in the banks. 

 Although properly piscivorous, it has been known to attack 

 young domestic animals, and I found the stomach of one 

 killed in June filled with a curious collection of larvae and 

 earth-worms." 



The foregoing description, it will be observed, applies chiefly 

 to the habits of the Otter in the rivers and on the coasts of 

 Scotland; those of our readers desirous of becoming ac- 

 quainted with the haunts and habits of the animal in the 

 rivers of the south of England should peruse a graphic chapter 

 in a little work entitled " Forest Tithes," by an author who 

 writes under the no tfi- de-plume of " A Son of the Marshes." 

 On the Upper Indus I have known a pair of Otters take up 

 their abode among the timbers of a wooden bridge. In sport- 

 ing phraseology, an Otter's lair is spoken of as its "holt." 

 When a burrow is excavated by the animals themselves it may 

 vary considerably in size and depth, but one described by Mr. 

 Buckley, discovered on one of the Scottish islands, seems to 

 be the longest and most complex on record. This tunnel, which 

 was bored in peaty soil, amongst the burrows of the Storm- 

 Petrel, was upwards of fifteen feet in length, with a diameter of 

 about a foot, except near the extremity, when it became about 

 four inches narrower. " Here and there it was widened out into 

 most evident circular or oval chambers, and the sides and 

 roof were smooth and glossy, rubbed and polished by the 

 passage to and fro of the animals' fur. The habitation had a 

 cunning and gradual incline from upwards into the peat-bank 

 f|:om the entrance. The latter was simply an uneven, rough, 



