Otter 
Where fish are reasonably abundant an otter can in this manner 
easily catch ten times as many as he can eat, and at such 
times is apt to satisfy himself with just tasting a mouthful from 
each, preferring the flaky meat just back of the head. Otters 
are also excellent judges of the different kinds of fish, agreeing 
with us in choosing trout, salmon and eels from among those 
that live in the rivers. Like seals, they are affectionate and genial, 
fond of each other, and, when trained, exhibiting a dog-like 
devotion to their masters. The old ones take the most solicitous 
care of the offspring and defend them against all comers; a dog 
that discovers an otter’s den and imprudently attempts to dig it 
out is more than likely never to return to his master. 
When the young otters are large enough, their mothers 
take them into the water for their first swimming lesson. It is 
said that at first they are mortally afraid of the water and have 
to be carried into it by force. 
I have never had any opportunities of observing them at that 
age, but as late as September, when the young ones were as 
big as cats, | have seen one climb on its mother’s shoulders, 
as if tired, and ride there as she swam against the current. 
They were hardly a dozen yards away, and when she saw 
me the old one dived, taking the youngster down with her. 
A few moments later they came up again side by side, with 
their heads close together, and a very attractive picture they made, 
bobbing up and down among the pickerel weed, watching me 
intently; from time to time the old one would lift her head 
nearly a foot out of the water, as if to see me more distinctly. 
Presently the young one climbed on her shoulders again, 
whereupon she dived, and the next that | saw of them they 
were playing about in the shadow of an old bridge twenty rods 
further up stream. 
The otter’s home is a den beneath the bank, usually with 
the entrance under water for safety. This is evidently not re- 
garded as absolutely essential, however, for otters have been 
known to have their nests in caves, high up in the banks and 
at the bottom of hollow trees. 
Last summer | found the home of a family of otters beside 
a little muddy brook that is nowhere more than a few inches 
deep. Their main entrance appeared to be through a hollow 
‘og, the other end of which was buried in the swamp beneath 
a2t 
