OTTER'S HAUNTS AND HABITS 



may occasionally kill one, although most people 

 would laugh at such an idea. We know that hill- 

 foxes take lambs, having scores of times found 

 carcasses in and about the earths, yet one meets 

 hunting people who resolutely refuse to believe 

 that Reynard ever falls so far from grace as to 

 feed on lamb. A fox will eat trout when he can 

 get it, and so will many dogs. We have one now 

 which eats small trout as greedily as a cat, and no 

 doubt foxes secure many fish when the hill-streams 

 are dead low in summer. It is no more strange 

 for a fox or a dog to eat fish than for an otter to 

 take an occasional lamb. All three are carnivorous 

 — the otter being least so — and when all is said 

 and done, wild animals show very unusual traits at 

 times. 



Summing up the otter's feeding habits, we find 

 he kills fish, and in the case of salmon he is 

 certainly wasteful. To set against this he takes 

 many a sickly fish, as well as cannibal trout, all 

 of which are better out of the way. He kills 



waterhens and dabchicks, both devourers of fish 



67 



