THE OTTER. 269 



savage little creatures ; they seemed to surpass even an im- 

 prisoned weasel in ferocity. 



I have often noticed that loathsome creatures prey upon 

 loathsome food. A favourite morsel of the water-rat is a 

 bloated toad, 1 while a nest of earwigs are the choice tit-bits 

 of the latter. As many as forty have been taken out of a 

 toad's maw. Sheridan's remark to a poor starved man eating 

 shrimps is equally appropriate here " You're very like your 

 meat." 



The otter, like all animals that depend on the waters for 

 prey, loses much of his address and cunning when cut off from 

 his native element. Bewildered on land, he seems to feel that 

 he has no fair play, and sometimes refuses to take advantage 

 even of the resources within his reach. In the river or loch, 

 on the contrary, he has always his wits about him, and will 



may remark having twice noted a large dew-worm wriggling in its bill. That it 

 is destructive to salmon few will attempt to deny the testimony of Sir James 

 Ramsay Maitland about the highest authority for fish culture in the kingdom. 

 Every fish naturalist has heard of or seen the perfect array of breeding-ponds 

 at Sauchie. In 1879 my son sent me the following communication from Sir 

 James, drawn out for me : 



" CRAIGEND, STIRLING, 



December 25, 1878. 

 " Water-Ousels. 



" I am afraid these birds do more harm than is generally supposed to fisheries. 

 I have this morning caught one in the act. He rose from a hole in the ice in one 

 of the ponds containing trout-fry, with a fish about two and a half inches long 

 in his bill. Several fish had lately been found on the ice, several yards from the 

 hole, and the men had blamed the dipper, so I determined to watch him, and 

 with the above result. J. R. G. MAITLAND. 



" About twenty similar cases observed afterwards by me. 



"J. R. G. M." 



I have said, in this work, that the water-ousel's bill does not seem formed for 

 seizing the small fry of fish, like the kingfisher's ; but on finding my mistake 

 the sentence has been left out in the present edition. Let me thank my very 

 clever and kindly critic for giving me the opportunity of defending observations 

 which were always well tested before being published. 



1 I have frequently offered my brown owls a toad, but they always refused it. 

 They, however, greedily devoured frogs ; and once, when the old male had just 

 swallowed one, we cheated him with a toad. As soon as he detected the nauseous 

 mouthful, he threw it from him with every symptom of disgust, although, in his 

 hunger, he had half bolted it. Even the voracious pike rejects a toad as bait. 



