MAMMALS 



Quick as thought I pushed my open hand 

 through the branches to the mouth of the 

 hole, to stop the otter (if I should have the 

 luck to be in time) from rushing out, thinking 

 I would wait there (for a week if necessary !) 

 until some one should pass by who would 

 either go for a spade or send some one with 

 one. The otter however saved me the trouble 

 of what might have been a very inconveniently 

 long wait by jumping at my hand and seizing 

 me by the thumb. I closed my fingers round 

 its lower jaw, and giving a ' mighty heave ' 

 brought the otter plump into the boat. The 

 other hand sufficed to disengage it from my 

 thumb, and, to complete my good luck, I 

 chanced to have my cartridges in a ferret-bag, 

 so shaking them out I stuffed the otter in, 

 and having made the string secure, gave vent 

 to my feelings in wild hurrahs ! Not until 

 the otter was actually in the boat did I dis- 

 cover that she was not full grown, though of 

 considerable size a circumstance doubtless 

 just as well for my thumb. The bite was 

 fairly severe, but I have had hundreds worse, 

 and I was quite ready to catch any number 

 more otters on the same terms. Five and a 

 half years afterwards she was killed by another 

 otter ; I macerated and articulated her skele- 

 ton, and it was exhibited at the Fisheries 

 Exhibition. 



The following interesting remarks are very 

 slightly abbreviated from the notes kindly 

 given me by Mr. Uthwatt : 



Otters lie in hollow trees, hollows in the banks 

 and among roots, and are very fond of old stone 

 drains and the sewers of towns. The claws of 

 otters inhabiting rocky or gravelly streams are 

 found to be worn down. If an otter's claws ap- 

 pear to be freshly worn down, it has been dis- 

 turbed from its usual haunts, and has been travel- 

 ling in search of a fresh habitation or of one of 

 the opposite sex. The male is however solitary, 

 and two adult males are never found together. 

 It is curious that when otters are killed, even 

 when one is chopped, nothing is found in the 

 stomach. 



Probably this is because, owing to the 

 peculiarly small size of the oesophagus neces- 

 sitating the very complete mastication of the 

 food, it is quickly digested. Mr. Uthwatt 

 has seen slides down banks of snow, and 

 tracks, as if otters had been sliding in the way 

 described of the North American species in 

 Mr. Harting's account in the Zoologist, 1894, 

 p. 379, but has never met any one who has 

 actually seen them using the slide. 



Otters are also fond of rolling on grass, and it 

 is probable that this is done to some extent in 

 order to get rid of the large ticks, with which they 

 are sometimes infested. 



In Bucks, otters are not often found at a dis- 

 tance from water, as is the case in more mountain- 

 ous parts of the country, where the smaller rivers 

 run very low in the heat of summer. 



Mr. Uthwatt remarks that an otter ' gener- 

 ally chooses a very hidden spot in which to 

 have young, either in a water-worn hollow 

 beneath the bank, or a hollow tree, or a tree 

 root.' I have known used as nurseries the 

 cup-shaped top of a pollard willow, and the 

 interior of a hay-rick built on an eyot, above 

 and below Great Marlow respectively ; and 

 the dry arch of a bridge over the Cherwell 

 (Oxon), the nest in this instance consisting 

 of a large accumulation of water weeds. I 

 have no doubt also that they not unfre- 

 quently nest in spaces accessible only by 

 water in the foundation of the mills on the 

 Thames. 



They may be enticed away from stretches of 

 water where it is impossible to hunt them by 

 making artificial holts convenient for them. Mr. 

 Frank Higgens of Buckingham has been very suc- 

 cessful in this. The nest is formed of reeds and 

 grass. The bitch will take care never to leave her 

 ' wedgings,' or the slightest sign of her presence, 

 on the banks of the river where she has established 

 her nursery, and either never uses the banks at all 

 until the cubs are able to swim, or else nature has 

 provided that she shall leave no scent during the 

 period. She generally lays up her ' wedgings ' in 

 a secret place, often in the same cavity as the 

 nest, if it is large enough. 



One can tell that an otter has young, if when 

 she is hunted, after being put down by the hounds, 

 she determinedly keeps away from the spot where 

 she was found. 



A bitch is a good deal more difficult to hunt 

 than a dog, being gamer, not so lazy, more rapid 

 in her movements and much more crafty. We 

 have frequently hunted a bitch for hours in a 

 weedy river without even viewing her chain. 

 Cubs look after themselves as soon as they lose 

 their milk-teeth. 



In its nocturnal wanderings in search of prey, 

 an otter never swims much of the river at a time, 

 but cuts overland across the bends, leaving what is 

 technically known as 'the drag.' The strongest 

 scent is left by the ' dripping drag,' which is 

 where the water was still dripping off its coat. 

 The drag generally ceases about a hundred yards 

 from the holt, the remaining distance being tra- 

 versed in the water. 



In hunting, the bank of the river to which the 

 wind is blowing is usually drawn, generally up 

 stream, until a drag is struck. An otter generally 

 works the side to which the wind blows when 

 going out, and the side from which it blows when 

 returning to its holt. 



If it is a last night's drag, the pace in the rich 

 meadow land of the midlands is fast enough to tax 

 the best runner, unless he knows the country and 

 is able to run cunning, and there is always the 



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