22 Otters and Otter-Hunting. 



may safely be placed in the same category with the 

 cows and bull-calves for which a farmer claimed 

 compensation from the eighth Duke of Beaufort as 

 having been destroyed by foxes. 



Of course, when fish are placed in stew-ponds or 

 the waters of hatcheries, they are, unless properly 

 protected, at the mercy of any Otter who 

 may chance to discover them. In the same way, if 

 canaries with clipped wings were to be turned down 

 in any number on a suburban lawn neighbouring 

 cats would speedily account for most of them. But 

 it is perfectly possible to protect fish-stock from the 

 assaults of Otters without resorting to the gun or 

 the barbarous and inhumane steel trap. Otters do 

 not dig, and I have yet to learn that they can climb 

 iron rails, or even cheap wire netting. The Otter is 

 often blamed for the work of the heron and the 

 kingfisher. Even in large natural lakes and ponds 

 stocked with fish the Otter is not unseldom accused 

 of causing their depletion ; but in every case of the 

 sort that I have investigated I have found that un- 

 suspected pike of great size have been really ac- 

 countable for the mischief, assisted by swans and 

 other waterfowl, herons, kingfishers, eels, and frogs. 

 In one such case I entertain some hope of having 

 turned the noble owner of the lake from the paths 

 of lutracide, but I trust not altogether at the 

 expense of the herons and kingfishers. 



