THE OTTER 341 



shoulder " touched. Rudd, roach, and pike, too, are eaten, 

 and bream. I remember a fenman once telling me ex- 

 citedly he had seen an old otter with a great old bream in 

 his mouth, and he informed me it took the fish under water. 

 I have seen a pike eaten in the classic spot the shoulder. 



In winter their " feetings " or foot-prints about the size 

 of a man's fist, with closed fingers are to be seen on the 

 snowy marshlands, and in their trail the wings and claws of 

 water-hens, coots, and wild-fowl for they will eat all these, 

 taking the wings and feet off as does a cat also fresh- water 

 mussels ; and I know one fenman who saw an otter eat a 

 nest of young wild ducks. The otter's mode of progression 

 is interesting. His legs are as short as they are stout, and 

 he seems to glide like an eel over the wet marshes or 

 ronds with dragging tail ; but when opportunity offers, they 

 will shut their fur, shake themselves, and roll over and over 

 like a dog. When frightened, their tail spreads out. 



The eel-catcher and flight-shooter see more of him, per- 

 haps, than most of the Broadsmen, for they are on the alert at 

 closing-in time and at daybreak, when the otter draws home. 

 Should the otter not get home by daybreak, it will lie up in 

 a deserted shed or mill, or roll itself up in the thick stuff 

 till night. One eel-catcher tells me he was setting his eel- 

 net in a dike, when he saw something move close to the 

 shore. He stood silently watching the spot, and suddenly 

 it flashed on him there was an otter. So he dropped his net 

 and went into his boat-house, and got his " old Betsy," and 

 crept along the shore. The otter saw him, and slipped into 

 the dike; and as the sky was clear to the westward, he 

 could see the otter when it put its head up to breathe. 

 When the otter came up a second time the eel-catcher fired, 

 and under he went. Up it came again, and again the eel- 

 catcher fired. Under it dived again. They kept up this 

 hide-and-seek game for ten shots, the otter going about 

 forty yards between each shot. At last the otter got tired 

 of playing the target, so it drew out on to the shore. The 



