THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 309 



breed at all times of the year ; for, during the same otter hunting 

 season I have myself killed them nearly full grown, then others 

 about fit to take care of themselves, then cubs of a still smaller 

 size ; again, some just born, while, sad to relate, I have slain even 

 the pregnant mother with the cubs yet unborn in her. I am thus 

 led to conclude that their season for breeding extends all round the 

 year. 



The average number of a litter is, I believe, about three or 

 four ; but I fancy they do not rear more than three. Once, and 

 once only, have 1 seen six young ones, but that was quite an ex- 

 ceptional case ; those I took out of a drain myself and tried to rear 

 them, but eventually they all died. 



Still, notwithstanding the opinion of those two experienced 

 hunters, I lean to the belief that reproduction takes place only 

 in the spring and early summer months ; that the cubs of 

 four or five pounds each, killed by Mr. Collier in the middle 

 of September, were born early in that year, and that those of 

 eight or ten pounds' weight, ' fit to take care of themselves,' 

 were dropped in the previous spring, and were, when killed, in 

 their second year. I infer this from the very slow growth of 

 the young otter I kept for so many months. He was about 

 two pounds only when I caught him in May, and although well 

 fed daily and in perfect health weighed no more than four or 

 five pounds in the late autumn, that is, in October, when he 

 was accidentally killed. Had he continued to live and thrive 

 through the winter, I believe he would have been an eight or 

 ten pounder in the following spring and summer. 



The chase of the otter, owing to floods and cold water, is 

 necessarily suspended for seven months in the year ; and how- 

 ever desirable it might be in the interest of that sport to observe 

 a close time during the infancy of the cubs, the hunting season 

 then would be so abridged by it that few men would be willing 

 to keep hounds expressly for that purpose only for so short a 

 time. Bitch-otters yielding milk, or indicating the very recent 

 dependence of the young upon them, are not unfrequently 

 killed even in the summer months, and then of course the 

 whole litter is destroyed ; while many infant cubs, far more 



