NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



least disposed towards water ; and will not, when they can avoid it, 

 deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element 



Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious : such is the otter, 

 which by nature is so well formed for diving that it makes great 



havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that we 

 had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much pleased 

 to see a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that 

 had been shot on the bank of our stream below the Priory, where 

 the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley Wood. 



