300 THE FOOD OF OTTERS 



is to take the evidence of competent and trustworthy 

 witnesses on either side. Keeping my mind as open 

 as possible on the subject, I shall summon two such 

 witnesses, one on either side, and leave the reader to 

 form his own conclusions. Reversing the usual 

 course of criminal trials, the first witness called shall 

 be one for the defence. 



Hearing that the late Sir Albert de Rutzen, the well- 

 known London police magistrate, had reared an otter 

 cub and kept it for many years as a household pet, 

 I wrote inquiring whether he had found that it really 

 preferred eels to other fish. He replied as follows: 1 



' I had a tame otter for more than twelve years. I caught 

 him when he was about the size of a small ferret, and he 

 was brought up on bread and milk, for which he retained 

 a liking till the day of his death, and therefore there was no 

 difficulty in keeping him in a place where it was not easy to 

 get fish. I invariably noticed that, whatever mixture of fish 

 was put down before him, he would always select an eel if 

 there was one among the lot. I have paid many visits to 

 fishmongers' shops with him. On one occasion I was in Bond 

 Street, and we stopped some little time at two fish shops 

 Grove's and another one. In the early morning, before the 

 dew was off the grass, he was very fond of catching frogs. 

 I never saw him eat the whole of one, but there was not 

 much of the frog left when he had done with it. He used 

 to come out with me and two terriers. They were on the 

 best of terms. I have seen the terriers find a rabbit and go 

 off full cry, with the otter after them as fast as he could go. 

 I never saw him show any sign of hunting the rabbit, but he 

 evidently knew there was something up and was anxious to 

 know what it was all about. 



' There was a stream which ran into a tidal river close to my 

 old home. At low tide there was little water in the stream. 



