CHINESE OTTER. 



and would eat all kinds of garden pests, such as snails, worms, and grubs, detaching the 

 snails from their shells with great dexterity. She would also leap upon the chair as they 

 stood by the windows and catch and eat flies as they fluttered on the window-panes. She 

 struck up a warm friendship with an Angora cat, and on one occasion when her friend was 

 attacked by a dog, she flew at the assailant, seized him by the jaw, and was so excited that 

 her master was obliged to separate the combatants and to send the dog out of the room. 

 The mode of instruction which is followed in the education of the Otter is sufficiently 

 simple. The creature is by degrees weaned from its usual fish diet, and taught to live 

 almost wholly on bread and milk ; the only fish-like article which it is permitted to see 

 being a leathern caricature of the finny race, with which the young Otter is habituated 

 to play, as a kitten plays with a crumpled paper or a cork, which does temporary duty 

 for a mouse. When the animal has accustomed itself to chase and catch the artificial 

 fish, and to give it into the hand of its master, the teacher extends his instructions by 

 drawing the leathern image smartly into the water by means of a string, and encouraging 

 his pupil to plunge into the stream after the lure and bring it ashore. As soon as the 

 young Otter yields the leathern prey, it is re warded by some dainty morsel which its teacher 

 is careful to keep at hand, and soon learns to connect the two circumstances together. 



CHINESE OTTER.-Lutra Chinensis. 



Having become proficient in the preliminary instructions, the pupil is further tested 

 by the substitution of a veritable, but a dead fish, in lieu of the manufactured article, 

 and is taught to chase, capture, and yield the fish at the command of its master. A living 

 fish is then affixed to a line in order to be brought by the Otter from the water in which 

 it is premitted to swim ; and lastly, the pupil is taught to pursue and capture living fish 

 which are thrown into the water before its eyes. The remaining point of instruction is to 

 taked the so-far trained animal to the water-side, and induce it to chase and bring to shore 

 the inhabitants of the stream, as they rove free and unconstrained in their native element. 



In many parts of the world the Otter is admirably trained for this purpose, and is 

 taught to aid its master, not only by capturing single fish, but by driving whole shoals 

 of fishes into the ready nets. 



When in pursuit of its finny prey, the Otter displays a grace and power which can- 

 not be appreciated with ocular investigation. The animal glides through the watery 

 element with such consummate ease and swiftness, and bends its pliant body with such 

 flexible undulations, that the quick and wary fish are worsted in their own art, and fall 

 easy victims to the Otter's superior aquatic powers. So easily does it glide into the 

 water, that no sound is heard, and scarcely a ripple seen to mark the time or place of its 

 entrance, and when it emerges upon the shore, it withdraws its body from the stream 

 with the same noiseless ease that characterizes its entrance. The Otter is a playful 



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