Uncommon Pets 295 
surface of the water, and swimming for a considerable distance below the surface before 
coming to the top for breath. In districts where otter-hounds are few and far between, 
an excursion along the banks of a stream will often result in several otters being 
seen gambolling about or else hunting for fish, provided only that perfect silence is 
preserved and the footfalls on the banks made as noiselessly as possible; the best time 
is about half-an-hour after sunset, so that the watch be made during the gloaming, 
when the opposite bank can be just seen without unduly straining the vision. 
When otters are captured young they are easily tamed, and soon get strongly 
attached to those who may have the looking-after of them; so much so, in fact, that 
many instances are on record where they have been trained to enter the water in 
search of fish and bring back their spoils to their owner. Indeed, in India and China 
the systematic traiming of otters for this purpose has been reduced to a fine art, and 
they are kept almost as frequently as cormorants are in the same countries and for 
the same purpose. The traming, according to Bishop Heber, is very similar to that 
adopted for falcons; the otter is taken when very young and dicted on bread and milk 
alone, fish beimg particularly eschewed. 
After a time the actual training com- 
mences; an artificial fish is tied to a 
cord and the animal persuaded to chase 
it and return with it to its master. After . 
awhile a real fish is used in place of the 
artificial one; should the otter mangle it 
while hunting it or bringing it to its 
owner it is punished, whilst if the fish 
is brought back uninjured the animal is 
encouraged by some particular dainty. The 
bishop relates in his journal that the otters 
were to be seen lying on the banks of 
the xivers with collars on thei necks, 
plaited or woven out of straw, to which 
were attached long cords or ropes to pre- 
vent the animals wandering away on their 
own account and not returning to their 
owners. Some little difficulty is experienced 
Photo by Lewis Medan F.Z.8., Finchley. ay first i“ RELLAUINNS the otter 1am mony 
SMALL AWE OTTER. speaking of the common otter—to return 
to the bank from which it started, and on 
which presumably its owner is awaiting its return, and many individuals cannot be 
broken at all of the habit of taking their captures on to the opposite bank and having 
their meal there before returning to their owner, leaving the partly-consumed fish behind 
them. In such a case the best thing to do is always to use the otter with a very 
thin cord—silk for preference—about ten yards longer than the width of the stream at 
its widest part; this permits the otter perfect freedom in the water, but also allows 
the owner to bring it back to the proper bank after a capture. The line must be 
fine and yet strong. A silk fishing-line is light, fine and strong, and the most suitable; 
it also has the merit of being cheap, as it may be got from a halfpenny per yard 
upwards. 
Otters must be kept out-of-doors, as coddling of any kind is most detrimental 
to them. Two of one sex must not be confined within the same enclosure, as 
they are very jealous animals, and the petty quarrels between those of the same sex 
soon result in bitter and -prolonged fights, with the conclusion usually of one or both 
