THE BOOK OF THE OTTER 



had a hole gnawed down through the back, the 

 carcasses being left lying near the nests, not an 

 egg having been touched. A duck caught on her 

 nest is treated in the same way by an otter. In 

 The Gamekeeper for June, 191 9, there is a note 

 concerning an otter which was caught in a tunnel- 

 trap baited with rabbit paunch. The trap was set 

 in the middle of a one hundred acre wood. The 

 otter was a cub, weighing ^\ lb. 



Waterhens and dabchicks, particularly the latter, 

 when taken by otters, are pulled under the water, 

 though they may be captured amongst the reeds 

 and other undergrowth as well. Ducklings some- 

 times fall victims to the otter, though as a rule big 

 pike do the greatest harm in this direction. Pike 

 have been known to take pheasants as well as duck 

 which had fallen into a lake during the course of a 

 shoot. From available evidence, otters on a 

 stream containing trout and coarse fish seem to 

 prefer the latter. Possibly they are easier to 

 capture than trout. On hill streams, where the fish 



are small but very numerous owing to shortage of 



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