THE ANIMALS OF THE CLIFFS 133 



Be that as it may, it is between However the night be spent the 



sundown and sunrise that the shy otter is rarely oblivious of the approach 



beast wherever found forgets his terror of day. No sooner do the cormorants 



and lives the free and unrestrained life begin to wing their way past in the 



denied him by day. Sallying from dusky light than he makes for the 



some holt he starts in the direction of hover of his choice and seeks its driest 



the morrow's hover, fishing as he goes, recess. So he will pass from one 



Hunger and lust of pursuit appeased sleeping-place to another, now to an 



he will, if time allows, seek a way of " otter's zawn " or " otter's ogo " 



indulging the more sportive side of his as the crabbers of the Land's End and 



nature. Failing more alluring means Lizard respectively call the small caves 



of diversion he makes a playfellow of frequented by the tribe, now to a mere 



the waves, romping with them until he crevice above high-water mark, now to 



tires. The love of sliding is in his a clitter of rocks that low springtide 



blood, and if a smooth slab invites he does not leave entirely dry. 



will spend hours in gliding down the But all the days and nights of a 



slippery face to the foam at its base, cliff-reared otter are by no means 



or if he finds a suitable rock such as the spent along the coast. There is nothing 



Otter Rock at Looe, he will spreadeagle he likes better than to make his way up 



himself on the surface and allow the river or stream in quest of eels or in 



heave of the swell to lift him over its pursuit of salmon and peal which floods 



crest into the troubled waters on its have attracted to the spawning beds, 



far side. He generally passes in play In his upwater journey he will keep to 



of this sort the watch before dawn. the line followed by generations of his 



If in search of a mate, however, he kind ; he will take the chords of the 



quests little and frolics not at all, bends, cross at the usual places, land 



but urged by his passion journeys on on the favourite sand-spits and mid- 



and on along the cliffs, arresting his stream rocks, and in passing from one 



steps on reef or headland to sound his tributary to another traverse the 



long, shrill call and listen for the reply, intervening hills along the laid trails. 



Above the murmur of the surf the Every hover about the watershed is 



high-pitched note will be audible to known to the wandering marauder, and 



his keen ears, though it come from far like an embodied spirit of unrest he 



along the coast. passes, under cover of night, from one to 



