12 Otters and Otter-Hunting. 



remember and use. It is only when a holt is in a 

 tree-root, which the action of water eventually 

 undermines and destroys, that the Otters of to-day 

 find themselves deprived of one of the houses of 

 call in which their remote ancestors were wont to 

 lie up before any modern Otter-hunter had seen 

 the light of day. It is this trait in the character 

 of the quarry that lends to Otter-hunting, as to 

 cricket, much " glorious uncertainty." 



There is still a great deal to be learned as to 

 the life-history of Lutra vulgaris; and few crea- 

 tures are more difficult of systematic study. Kept 

 in captivity, though he is quite easily tamed and 

 domesticated, and has even been utilised tO' catch 

 fish for his owners, he loses his usual character- 

 istics, even to the point of devouring fish in a 

 foreign and unnatural manner ; and observation of 

 his habits under such conditions has little value. 



The vast majority of country people of all 

 classes have never seen an Otter, and even among 

 Otter-hunters comparatively few have observed 

 their quarry except when he is in process of being 

 hunted. The combination of nocturnal with 

 aquatic habits is sufficient to account for this fact ; 

 but even professed naturalists have fared little 

 better, and in '' Forest Tithes" "A Son of the 

 Marshes" confesses that "I have perhaps only 

 seen the animal five times in the whole course of 



