THE OTTER* 167 



Though the otter swims and dives with wonderful 

 facility, it cannot be considered as an amphibious 

 animal, or an animal that can remain very long under 

 water. When by accident it is entangled there, which 

 it sometimes is, by getting into nets, and attempting to 

 plunder them of fish, but not able to get out again, it 

 is soon drowned. It is indeed provided with a diving 

 apparatus, which shows that the water must be care- 

 fully excluded from its lungs ; the nostrils are fur- 

 nished with membranes, which close them like valves, 

 whenever the muzzle gets under water. The ears and 

 eyes of the otter are also very small ; but the latter, 

 which are clear and bright, and adapted for enabling it 

 to see under the water, are so placed, that its vision 

 takes in a very wide range. The feet of the otter are 

 short, but they are armed with very strong claws or 

 nails, which are grooved on their under sides, as is 

 usual with animals that burrow in the earth. 



Otters are rather solitary animals ; at least, not more 

 than one pair are usually found in the same immediate 

 neighbourhood, and their haunts are in concealed 

 banks. As is the case with the golden eagle and some 

 other birds of prey, the young are driven from the 

 paternal dwelling by the old ones, as soon as they are 

 able to procure their own food. 



The nest or burrow is sometimes a crevice that is 

 found ready made, but as often an artificial one, the 

 entrance of which is under the water, or at least so close 

 to it, that no land animal can enter. The female goes 

 with young about nine weeks, and brings forth four or five 

 at a litter. The time of their usual appearance is in 

 March or April, later in the colder parts of the country 



