298 HUNTING. 



do it with half the energy that otherwise might be expected 

 from him. 



But to return to the otter and his ways. We have searched 

 the best authors on Natural History in vain with a view to 

 obtain some light on the dark subject of the otter's family 

 affairs ; how long the period of gestation, when the young are 

 brought forth, and how many they are in number. The first 

 point is ignored altogether, the early spring is guessed at for 

 the second, and the number of the young is variously given as 

 three, four and five. This last is doubtless correct, the larger 

 or smaller number depending on the age of the parent dam. 

 But as to the second point I am inclined to believe that the 

 period of parturition is not exactly limited to early spring, like 

 that of the fox, but extends also occasionally to the summer 

 months, inasmuch as cubs of various sizes are met with at 

 the same time of the year. Mr. Collier, with his half- century's 

 experience, writes thus : 



I think it is impossible to say when otters breed, as I have 

 killed cubs of all sizes in the same month. Some thirty-five years 

 ago, about the latter end of May, we found a bitch-otter near 

 Ilminster, and while hunting her, the poor little mother threw her 

 cubs, one of which no bigger than a mouse I kept for years in a 

 bottle of spirit. I regret to say that last year, 1883, on our own 

 river, the Culm, I had the great misfortune accidentally to kill four 

 cubs, about four or five pounds each ; it was then the middle of 

 September. Only once in my life have I ever seen five in one 

 litter; this was on the Yarty, and as bad luck would have it they 

 were lying in a dry hollow bank near some shallow water, so the 

 hounds and terriers killed them all instantly. I am inclined to 

 think three to be the average number. 



The Hon. Geoffrey R. C. Hill, who has hunted the otter 

 from his boyhood to the present day, not only corroborates 

 Mr. Collier's views, but goes so far as to say that otters, like 

 dogs, breed at all seasons of the year. He writes thus : 



I do not think any man living can tell for certain the exact 

 period of the year when otters breed. My own belief is that they 



