REMINISCENCES 



coverts, and after running a ring through them, it 

 was bowled over by hounds in the open as it was 

 making its way back to the river. That an otter 

 knows every inch of ground over which he has once 

 travelled is made quite apparent to those who do 

 much otter-hunting. 



We have, in a previous chapter, told of an otter 

 which travelled ten miles overland from one stream 

 to another, going straight to the various smoots 

 through the walls which barred its passage. In 

 an emergency, too, an otter makes up his mind 

 pretty quickly. On one occasion the terriers got 

 to their otter in a drain, and after opening the 

 latter, the otter backed out. The drain lay 

 parallel to a hedge, and like a flash the otter darted 

 through this, ran down behind it, and was into 

 another underground retreat before anyone had 

 time to realise his game. 



As a rule, if two otters are put down together, the 



one which is not being hunted will promptly make 



itself scarce. We remember on one occasion, 



however, when hounds were hunting a bitch otter, 



149 



