334 -The Tame Otter. CHAP. xxn. 



salt water inlets, and from the level of the sea to a considerable elevation. 

 It has its lair under large rocks, among boulders ; and, in alluvial countries, 

 excavates extensive burrows, generally in some elevated spot close to the 

 river, with numerous entrances. It is almost always found in parties of five, 

 six, or more, and, though partly nocturnal in its habits, may often be seen 

 hunting after the sun is high, and some time before sunset. I have seen a 

 party out in the sea, on the Malabar coast, probably making their way from 

 one backwater to another, but as they are very numerous on this coast, they 

 may now and then hunt in the sea. This otter is trained in some parts of 

 Bengal to assist in fishing, by driving the fish into the nets. Young ones 

 are not unusually caught in the fishermen's nets, and are very easily tamed. 

 I had one brought me when very young, whilst at Tellicherry, on the 

 Marabar Coast, which I brought up with a terrier dog, with whom it became 

 very friendly. This otter would follow me in my walks like a dog, and 

 amuse itself by a few gambols in the water when it had the opportunity, and 

 now and then caught frogs and small fish. As it grew older it took to 

 going about by itself, and one day found its way to the bazaar, and seized a 

 large fish from a Moplah. When resisted, it showed such fight that the 

 rightful owner was fain to drop it. Afterwards it took regularly to this 

 highway style of living, and I had on several occasions to pay for my pet's 

 dinner rather more than was necessary, so I resolved to get rid of it. I put 

 it in a closed box, and having kept it without food for some time, I conveyed 

 it myself in a boat some seven or eight miles off, up some of the numerous 

 backwaters on this coast. I then liberated it, and when it had wandered 

 out of sight among some inundated paddy-fields, I returned by boat by a 

 different route. That same evening, about 9 P.M., whilst in the town, about 

 one and a half miles from my own house, witnessing some of the ceremonials 

 connected with the Mohurrum festival, the otter entered the temporary shed, 

 walked across the floor, and came and lay down at my feet ! " 



The peculiar formation of the otter's tail is not without interest. It 

 is not round like that of a dog, cat, or rat, but flattened, and specially 



pale facial spots, but these are indistinct, though there is sometimes a faint pale 

 eyebrow. 



" Total length up to 46 inches, of which the tail is 17, and 3 inches wide at the 

 base. 



"I have followed Blyth in joining L. Nair and L. Indica, though at one time I 

 was strongly inclined to believe them distinct. My impression was that the common 

 otter of most of the rivers of Southern India, at all events, was distinct from the 

 generally larger, and more robust otter found in such numbers along the Malabar 

 coast, and in Lower Bengal ; and that the latter, besides being larger, had the fur 

 more reddish or yellowish brown, and with the two colours much more distinctly 

 divided; in fact, more resembling Lutra vulgaris ; but in the absence of authentic, 

 specimens, I can only draw the attention of observers for future verification." 



