COMMON OTTER. 177 



procured for it the distinction of being permitted by the 

 Church of Rome to be eaten on maigre days. The quiet 

 humour of good old Izaak Walton could not rest without 

 a sly hit at this fact : — 



*' Piscator. I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a 

 pleasant question : do you hunt a beast, or a fish ? 



" Hunt. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you ; yet 

 I leave it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians, 

 who have made vows never to eat flesh. But I have 

 heard the question hath been debated among many great 

 clerks, and they seem to difl'er about it ; yet most agree 

 that her tail is fish : and if her body be fish too, then I 

 may say that a fish will walk upon land (for an Otter 

 does so), sometimes five or six or ten miles in a night." 



Now, were we to adopt the reference recommended by 

 honest Izaak, the description of this animal would have 

 fallen within the province of our late lamented friend, 

 Mr. Yarrell, rather than ours ; for, says Pennant, "in the 

 kitchen of the Carthusian convent near Dijon, we saw 

 one preparing for the dinner of the religious of that 

 i-igid order, who, by their rules, are prohibited during 

 their wdiole lives the eating of flesh." 



In Daniel's Rural Sports occurs the following notice 

 of a spotted variety of the Otter: — "In Scotland the 

 vulgar have an opinion that there is a king or leader 

 among the Otters, spotted with white, and larger. They 

 believe that it is never killed without the sudden death 

 of a man or of some animal at the same instant ; that its 

 skin is endowed with great virtue as an antidote against 

 infection, a preservative of the warrior from wounds, and 

 ensures the mariner from all disasters upon the sea." In 

 Stoddart's work on Angling, a similar notice occurs; 

 and Mr. Blytli, when living at Tooting, favoured us with 

 the following information : — " On my inquiry of ;m 



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