The Haunts and Habits of the British Otter. 19 



kills, as may be proved by examining the crops or 

 stomachs of small birds and mammals found 

 *' frozen to death." Blaine recounts that in Essex 

 in 1796, '' after the fleets had been long frozen," 

 no fewer than nine Otters were killed by hounds 

 in one day. Doubtless they had been so weakened 

 by privation that, like hares after a comparatively 

 light fall of snow, they could have been knocked 

 over with sticks. 



That Otters will, under certain circumstances, 

 vary their diet is shown by a case mentioned by 

 Daniel, in which one took an artificial trolling bait. 



In view of the fact that, principally owing to 

 the tardy recognition of the value of fisheries, and 

 the consequent rise in water value for sporting pur- 

 poses, an attack on the Otter by riparian owners, 

 pisciculturists, and anglers, with no knowledge of 

 natural history, has been widely made, it may be of 

 use here to go a little more deeply into what an 

 Otter eats and does not eat. 



So long ago as 1874, in his preface to the stereo- 

 typed edition of White's " Selborne," published 

 by Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Mr. J. E. Hart- 

 ing, in a footnote to the author's solitary mention 

 of Otters, Letter XXIX. (p. 97), says that " they 

 are carnivorous as well as piscivorous, and have 

 been known to eat ducks and teal, and, while in 

 confinement, young pigeons. Frogs form part of 



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