CHAPTER XI 



THE OTTER AND HIS NATURE 



An otter is a common beast enough and therefore 

 I need not tell of his making. She liveth with 

 (on ?) fish and dwelleth by rivers and by ponds 

 and stanks (pools). And sometimes she feedeth 

 on grass of the meadows and bideth gladly under 

 the roots of trees near the rivers, and goeth to her 

 feeding as doth other beasts to grass, but only in 

 the new grass time, and to fish as I have said. 

 They swimmeth in waters and rivers and some- 

 times diveth under the water when they will, and 

 therefore no fish can escape them unless it be too 

 great a one. They doth great harm specially in 

 ponds and in stanks, for a couple of otters with- 

 out more shall well destroy the fish of a great 

 pond or great stank, and therefore men hunt them. 

 They go in their love at the time that ferrets do, 

 so they that hold (keep) ferrets in their houses 

 may well know the time thereof. They bear their 

 whelps as long as the ferrets and sometimes more 

 and sometimes less. They whelp in holes under 

 the trees near the rivers. Men hunt at them with 



