170 MUSTELlDiE. 



it does only when driven from its proper haunts by 

 severe and continued frost. The obvious difficulty of 

 making detailed observations on the habits of an ani- 

 mal like the Otter, when in its native haunts, will, we 

 hope, be sufficient excuse to our readers for the inser- 

 tion of the following somewhat trivial remarks, the only 

 merit of which consists in their accuracy: — In 1850 we 

 observed an old pollard ash standing on the bank of a 

 small stream called the Stour, running into the Avon 

 near Stratford, which was frequented by an Otter. The 

 tree was hollow, and had been partly undermined by the 

 action of the water, and its interior rendered accessible 

 from the stream, though not from the river-bank. A 

 narrow platform, or stair of earth, was the only lodge- 

 ment which the tree afforded, and on this, without the 

 least interposition of soft or warm material, the Otter 

 had evidently, from its padded and smooth appearance, 

 been accustomed to lie. The presence of hairs sticking 

 upon the moist earth, as well as bones and scales of fish, 

 sufficiently indicated the nature of the frequenter of this 

 retreat. In order to reach the top of the platform, the 

 creature had to climb up the front of it, which being of 

 clay, and rendered soft by its contiguity to the water, 

 was deeply scored and ground by the Otter's nails. A 

 large steel trap was placed on the mud, under water, near 

 to the tree, but the . only result was that the place was 

 abandoned. A short time afterwards our attention was 

 called to a well-beaten track through an osier-bed in the 

 Avon, a mile or two down stream, evidently the run 

 of some large animal, which, coming from the water at 

 one end of the bed, passed again into it at the other. 

 There could be no doubt that it was the track of an 

 Otter, some fragments of fish serving to confirm the 

 opinion, which the inspection of the run itself pointed 



