INVERERNE. 5 9 



some having yellowish-green legs and some blue -coloured legs. 

 The latter appear to be the old birds. 



The thrushes feed in great numbers now in the turnip fields. 



As soon as the wheat is sown, birds of all kinds flock on it 

 in great numbers rooks, wood-pigeons, gulls, and small birds, 

 particularly greenfinches. The flocks of the latter seem to consist 

 almost wholly of cock birds. 



November 8th. By the edge of the river are tracks of four 

 otters, two old ones and two young ones. They are evidently 

 newly arrived, and will probably remain feeding about the mouth 

 of the river till a flood drives them away. There are two or 

 three small hillocks the size of molehills near the river, to which 

 the otters invariably resort ; and it seems that whenever an otter 

 arrives in that part of the river, however great a stranger he 

 may be, or however long an interval may have elapsed since an 

 otter has visited the hillock, the newcomer goes out of the water 

 to examine the place as if the animal wished to judge by the 

 scenery or staleness of the marks on it what likelihood there 

 may be of any other otters being in the neighbourhood. 



Shy as the otter is, and easily alarmed in his ordinary 

 pursuits, no animal shows more courage and determination in 

 defending its young, or more attachment to its mate or companion. 

 If a young otter is taken hold of, the mother, on hearing its cry 

 of distress, at once puts off all her timidity and rushes to the 

 rescue of her curious looking progeny. I have known a man to 

 be so determinedly attacked by a female otter, that he was obliged, 

 in self-defence, to drop the young one that he was carrying off. 

 When an otter is caught in a trap, all its companions that may be 

 within hearing of its struggles to escape immediately repair 

 to the spot and try to assist the captive in escaping. 



During the daytime the otter lies quietly in some concealed 

 spot, either in a hole excavated under some overhanging bank or 

 root of a tree, or in some hollow place amongst a cairn of stone ; 

 occasionally, however, when surprised by the light of day in 

 a situation where he deems it imprudent to continue his course 

 towards the usual hiding-place, the otter will lie up for the day 



