CHAPTER II 



THE otter's haunts AND HABITS 



As mentioned in the previous chapter, otter cubs 



may be born in any month of the year. Prior to 



laying down her young, the bitch otter selects a 



couch in the vicinity of good feeding ground. 



Her choice of a retreat will vary with the locality 



in which she happens to be at the time. In the 



low country her cubs may be laid down in a dry 



drain in the meadows, where frogs are plentiful, 



and the ditches contain a supply of eels, or amongst 



the brushwood in some large covert, where the 



ground is swampy, and through which one or two 



small runners meander on their way to join the 



parent stream. In the north, where the rivers are 



swift and rocky, the cubs may first see the light of 



day in some cairn or pile of boulders, situated high 



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