FEB, STOATS— OTTERS. 179 



up the young wheat in great quantities with their 

 strong bills. The stoats are now pure white in al- 

 most every instance, although I shot one on the 3rd 

 of this month who had only very partially acquired 

 his winter colour. My rabbit beagles ran him for 

 a long time full cry on some rough ground. When- 

 ever the stoat went into a rabbit-hole I turned him 

 out again with a ferret, in this way running him till 

 I killed him. 



While the river is in this state of confusion with 

 ice, &c., I see that the otters take themselves to the 

 unfrozen ditches and springs to hunt for eels and 

 flounders, which fish they feed on apparently with 

 great perseverance, if one can judge by the distance 

 they hunt for them in the snow. The otter, judging 

 from the ground he goes over, must commence 

 moving as soon as it is dark, and continue his 

 hunting till nearly daylight. 



Notwithstanding the shyness of the otter, this 

 animal is very determined in the defence of its 

 young ones, and boldly confronts a person who 

 takes one of them up. My keeper tells me that he 

 has seen an old otter feeding her young with fish : 

 the two young ones were sitting on a flat stone at 

 the edge of the burn when their parent brought 

 them a good-sized trout. They immediately both 

 seized the fish, pulling and tearing at it like two 



