94 MARVELS OF THE AOTMAL WORLD 



In some Eastern countries tamed otters are 

 employed by the fishermen for driving the fish 

 into their nets, and Bishop Heber, when journeying 

 on a river in Bengal, records having seen on one 

 occasion nine or ten of the creatures which were 

 ' . . . tethered with straw collars and strings to 

 bamboo stakes on the banks. Some were swimming 

 about at the full extent of their strings, or lying 

 half in and half out of the water ; others were 

 rolling themselves in the srun on the sandy bank, 

 uttering a shrill whistling noiae, as if in play. I 

 am told that most of the fishermen in the neigh- 

 bourhood kept one or more of these animals, who 

 were as tame as dogs and of great service in 

 fishing. . . .' 



The ancient Egyptians used to tame and train 

 various wild animals, such as lions, leopards, 

 cheetahs, and striped hyaenas, for the purpose of 

 hunting other creatures. It is recorded that the 

 lions were sometimes clipped by their owners, 

 and we may well imagine the extraordinary appear- 

 ance of the king of beasts as he paraded about in 

 the guise of a glorified poodle dog. 



So far we have confined our remarks to mammalian 

 hunters, but if we give our attention to the avian 

 fauna we find that numerous species have been 

 impressed into the service of man for sporting 

 purposes. Quite a large number of the hawks 

 and falcons are trained for the pursuit of game, 

 the quarry including grouse, black-game, par- 

 tridges, pheasants, ducks, woodcock, snipe, herons, 

 quails, land -rails, rooks, crows, ravens, blackbirds, 



