Ground Vermin Haunts of the Otter. 325 



to a more satisfactory source, and a visit to the farmyard 

 will be the result, when the poultry will suffer considerable 

 destruction. Occasionally even such unwieldy victims as a 

 sucking pig or lamb, which might be unprotected, have been 

 carried off and devoured. It must be observed, meanwhile, 

 that such unusually necessitous conditions rarely fall to the 

 lot of the otter. 



The places which the animal haunts are so extensive 

 and varied that but little can be said concerning them, 

 more than that a greater length of water is passed and 

 re-passed by the otter than anyone might suppose except 

 those that have taken part in some of the hunts becoming 

 so popular. It is, therefore, only necessary to say that, 

 undisturbed, the otter chooses certain boundaries which it 

 but rarely passes, and generally confines its attention to 

 the fish frequenting the stretch of water chosen. Its lair 

 is not at all a cleverly arranged one, or well calculated 

 for defence, but it is mostly adopted as being favourable 

 for egress at some spot unlikely to be observed by any 

 enemies, of which, however, it has none beyond its human 

 foes and their invariably attendant dogs. 



The lair of the otter will probably be situated beneath 

 the roots of a large tree growing at the water's edge, 

 or, it may be, up some roughly constructed drain, more 

 especially those known in the locality where they exist as 

 underground gutters, some of which are excellently con- 

 stituted strongholds for the animal which adopts them. 

 Further, any natural crevice in a single rock, or between 

 two ; also the passages and interstices formed among rough 

 and large boulders, washed clear of soil by some flood, 



Y 



