NATURE BY THE WATERSIDE 245 



quently, when their stomachs were most likely tc 

 contain traces of what had been taken in their 

 night's fishing. I have carefully examined, wilh 

 the aid of a lens, the dried excrement of otters in 

 five cases, all taken from near holts on Lake District 

 streams. In four cases these consisted of the hard 

 body cases of crayfish, in the fifth the same with the 

 scales of some coarse fish probably the perch. I 

 have in my mind's eye a famous river reach where 

 otters and plenty of trout exist side by side ; and 

 where the fastnesses of the former are impregnable, 

 disease is foreign to the stream. The economy 

 of the otter ought not to be overlooked in connec- 

 tion with sport and our fish supply. Probably its 

 increasing rarity has much to do with salmon 

 disease, as had the extermination of the larger birds 

 of prey with grouse-disease. A falcon always takes 

 the easiest chance ; and so does an otter. In each 

 case they kill off the weakest and thereby tend to 

 stamp out disease. As a fish preserver I started 

 with certain prejudices against the otter, but 

 observation over many years has swept these away. 

 I do not wish to defend it beyond a certain point, 

 but I am convinced that on a trout-stream otters do 

 much more good than harm. 



It may be interesting to add that at Bassenth- 

 waite Lake a man and his son trained a pair of 

 otters to catch fish in the lake. They would return 

 when called upon, or follow their master home when 

 the fishing was done. One of my friends has to-day 

 a young otter which he leads about in a leash. 



Although I am afraid the heron must be written 

 down an enemy of both game and coarse The 

 fish, yet it is such a fine bird, and employs Heron 

 such sportsmanlike methods, that every angler 



