THE OTTER. 105 



At one time the otter was a fierce and terrible 

 land hunter, like the stoat and the weasel, and it is 

 probable that he took to hunting the waterways 

 simply because he found food most abundant 

 there. Voles had their creeps to and from the 

 margin, wild-fowl were in the rushes, and rabbits 

 swarmed within the sandy banks. These were the 

 otter's natural prey, and so he took to hunting 

 by the water's edge, where such food was most 

 plentiful ; but he came upon bad times, when the 

 river was frozen and there were no wild-fowl, when 

 voles and rabbits were scarce owing to the floods 

 of the previous spring, and when only the rapidly 

 flowing burns were free of ice. At that season of 

 the year the trout lay within these tiny burns, 

 weak with spawning, and gigantic salmon rolled 

 upon the gravel redds. The hungry otters found 

 the fish easy to catch, affording food in abun- 

 dance during the Hunger Moon, and so the otter 

 became more and more of an angler and less and 

 less of a land hunter. By degrees he grew into 

 a master in the art of swimming, easily out- 

 manoeuvring the lightning-darting trout and the 

 kingly salmon, and earning his living in this way 

 very much more easily than he ever earned it 

 on land. 



To-day the otter is regarded by most people 

 solely as a water animal ; yet young otters dislike 

 the water, and are only made to take to it by their 

 parents, who, diligently and patiently, teach them 

 the art of swimming. 



NIGHT HABITS. 



At what time the otters take their rest no man 

 can say, for when undisturbed they are never still 

 day or night. In thickly peopled areas, where 



