GROUP OF THE OTTERS. 



331 



In a state of freedom it is certainly ex- 

 clusively carnivorous, but in captivity it can 

 easily be accustomed to a vegetable diet. 



The otter lives a solitary life. The breed- 

 ing season, which interrupts its solitariness 

 for a time, mostly occurs at the beginning of 

 spring. The female gives birth in May to 



at most four blind young ones, which she 

 watches over tenderly, and keeps for a long 

 time under her guardianship. 



Although otters are rather helpless crea- 

 tures on land, they yet sometimes traverse 

 long stretches of country to get from a dried- 

 up brook to another still running. They 



23. — The Otter (Lutra vulgaris), page 229. 



waddle along pretty quickly with their belly 

 on the ground. They can easily be tamed, 

 become much attached to their master, follow- 

 ing him like a dog, and allow themselves to 

 be trained for fish-catching. 



Yet the otter is passionately pursued on 

 account of the devastation it commits among 

 the fishes in ponds and rivers, as well as for 

 the sake of its fur and its tender tasty flesh, 

 which is among the articles of diet allowed 

 during fasts. In the eyes of the Church the 

 otter is a fish. But the hunting of the otter 

 is extremely difficult, In the water the ani- 

 mal merely shows the point of its nose for an 

 instant to breathe. Traps it avoids with great 

 astuteness, and it detects at once by the smell 

 whether a human hand has touched them; 

 and when it has been caught by a single paw 

 it bites itself free and makes off. 



The Sea-otter i^Enhydris marina), fig. 1 24, 

 is rightly considered a peculiar type, which 

 forms the connecting link between the otters 

 and seals. It is a powerful animal, attaining 

 a weight of about 90 lbs., and a length of 

 nearly 4 feet. The species is absolutely con- 

 fined to the shores of Behring's Strait. 



The head is quite round, the neck thick 

 and short, the body thick and cylindrical, the 

 tail short and flattened like an oar, the feet 

 very short and clumsy. All the feet are 

 broadly webbed, and thus form powerful 

 oars ; the fore-paws are small, the toes com- 

 pletely covered with hair, and only indicated 

 by very short claws; the hind-legs are placed 

 very far back, and are long and broad, 

 shaped in fact almost like those of seals. 



The dentition is very remarkable. The 

 sea-otter is the only carnivore which has only 



