60 INVEKERNE. 



in some very unexpected place, crawling quietly into some con- 

 venient drain, or choosing a dry place in a clump of rushes, and 

 there he will lie during the whole day, till the gloom of evening 

 enables him to continue his journeying, or to commence fishing 

 again. I remember an instance of a groom in Hampshire being 

 startled by an otter jumping from under his wheelbarrow, which he 

 had left leaning against the stable wall close to a stream. Into 

 this the otter had crawled in the morning, and there he would 

 probably have remained till evening had not the man, having 

 occasion for the barrow, dislodged him by turning it over. 



Though the otter is naturally wholly piscivorous, on emergency 

 he will eat flesh or fowl, and is occasionally caught in traps 

 baited with a pigeon, a piece of rabbit, or whatever else the 

 gamekeeper may make use of in catching other vermin. The 

 trap that holds an otter must, however, have both a powerful 

 spring and be well chained to a peg, with a swivel or two on the 

 chain to prevent the animal breaking it by dint of twisting. 



In hunting down the course of a river during the night time, 

 in descending the stream the otter always keeps the water, 

 gliding, in his quiet ghostlike manner, down the deep pools, 

 making scarcely a ripple as he floats down, sometimes diving and, 

 indeed, rarely showing much of his head above the surface, 

 excepting when to listen to some distant sound, or to gaze at 

 some doubtful object, he suddenly rises half his length per- 

 pendicularly out of the water. In passing the fords he wades 

 down the shallowest place, or if the stream is there very rapid, he 

 comes out of the water and follows the bank of the river, moving 

 along in a curious leaping manner. When in pursuit of fish, the 

 otter seems, as far as can be observed, to try to get below his prey 

 in order to seize it by the throat. The quickness of his 

 movements in the water, as well as the little disturbance he 

 makes, are quite wonderful, gliding swiftly and noiselessly as an 

 arrow from a bow. In ascending the stream, to return homewards 

 to his day quarters, he leaves the water wherever the current 

 is at all strong, and, indeed, he seems to travel at this time 

 almost as much by land as by water. 



