12 OTTER AND BADGER-HUNTING. 



is a practice on every account objectionable : they are 

 constantly in jeopardy from it, and wbere scent has 

 been overrun, it will probably be irretrievably ruined. 

 Let the young huntsman ever bear this maxim in re- 

 membrance, that care and patience are the surest sub- 

 stitutes for the practice and experience of his elder 

 brethren of the craft. 



OTTER-HUNTING, one of our earliest sports, and for- 

 merly very popular, is now nearly obsolete. There are 

 but very few packs kept in England for the purpose, 

 and tjiey are quite private. That the pursuit of this 

 most destructive animal, for its extirpation is of infinite 

 importance to the lover of the angle, all who know the 

 vast mischief done by it to our waters, are aware. In 

 1804 one was killed near Leominster, that weighed 

 thirty-four pounds and a half. Its age was supposed 

 to be eight years ; and it was calculated that during the 

 latter four or five, it consumed annually a ton of fish. 

 We shall return to the otter when we have to speak of 

 the trapping of vermin. 



BADGER-HUNTING is still more rare, but as, occasion- 

 ally, instances occur in which a knowledge of the 

 animal's habits and resorts may be found useful, it will 

 be as well briefly to allude to them. During the day 

 he chiefly confines himself to his burrow, a strong earth, 



