238 MAMMALS IN THE WATER 



like young ducks, and the teaching was by example, 

 not instruction. When master of the art, the otter 

 swims, not with all four feet, but with the hind-feet, 

 folding the front paws alongside its body. Mr. Trevor- 

 Battye has noticed that the water-voles do the same. 

 This agrees with the progress of human swimmers, 

 who usually begin by making too much use of the 

 arms and too little of the legs, but discover later on 

 that the latter are the main aids in swimming either on 

 or below the surface. The otters are so far modified 

 from the polecat tribe that they have webbed toes ; the 

 water-voles have not even this advantage over their 

 land relations. It ought to follow from this that the 

 latter could, with a little trouble, become aquatic. 

 There is a great deal of evidence to show that there is 

 no hard-and-fast line between land mammals and water 

 mammals, so far as this distinction rests on the ability 

 to use both elements. Stoats, for instance, are excellent 

 swimmers, and, if put to it for food, would probably 

 learn to catch fish just as the polecat is known to catch 

 eels. Cats, which have an intense dislike of wet, swim 

 well, carrying the head high. Their distaste for aquatics 

 does not extend to the larger cats. Tigers are fond 

 of bathing, swim fast, and the c river tigers ' of the 

 Sunderbunds, and the tigers near the coast of the 

 Straits of Malacca, are constantly noticed in the water. 

 "Whether the trained Egyptian cats which were used to 



