122 PARTIAL WATER TRESPASSERS. 



gait is caused by the length of the body, the shortness 

 of the legs, and the distance between the fore and hind 

 legs. As the creature goes galloping along, the back 

 is arched at every leap, and the entomological spectator 

 is at once reminded of the peculiar mode of progression 

 adopted by the looper caterpillar. 



The animal is perfectly aware of. its inferiority on 

 land, and seldom trusts itself far from water. Almost 

 the only exception is when the rivers are so frozen that 

 it cannot obtain its ordinary food, and is obliged to 

 hunt for game on land, like its terrestrial relatives. 

 Under such conditions it has been known to enter 

 farm-yards at many miles' distance from the river which 

 it frequents, and to make as much havoc among the 

 poultry as would be caused by a marten or a polecat. 



If, therefore, it be alarmed when on land, it always 

 makes for the water at once, dives, and can swim to a 

 considerable distance before it emerges. Its mode of 

 respiration is rather peculiar. The lungs are capacious, 

 so as to contain a large quantity of air, and as the 

 animal swims below the surface it continually expires 

 the air which it had taken into its lungs, so that as it 

 goes along its progress can be traced by the rising 

 air-bubbles. The supply of air being exhausted, it 

 rises to the surface, takes a breath, and again dives. 

 The rapidity with which this operation is conducted 

 seems rather startling until we recollect that as the 

 animal has already emptied its lungs under water, it 

 only needs to make a single inspiration to complete the 

 act of breathing. 



When the Otter goes into the water from the land, 

 it slips in as noiselessly as if the water were oil, and, 



