1909-19^0-] A Day with the Otter Hounds, 227 



their holt. There are three to five cubs (April to June) in the 

 litter, and when there are more it is generally considered there 

 are two litters in the same holt. The holt is often a natural 

 cavity, a drain, or a hole made by the inundations of the 

 stream ; it is seldom occupied for more than three to four 

 days at a time, and it is imperative that it should be both 

 dry and warm. 



While the otter is the Gipsy or Bedouin of the animal 

 world, it is much maligned, and should have protection by 

 Act of Parliament. Eichard Jefferies writes, " With mixed 

 feelings of pleasure and regret, — glad to be able to examine 

 once more minutely one of the most perfect of animal mech- 

 anisms ever fashioned by the Great Creator, but grieved that 

 this beautiful creature should have been shot. The otter and 

 badger, gallant beasts, can never be classed among vermin. 

 The poor creatures are simply trapped or shot to be set up in 

 a glass case." I might mention that within the last month I 

 was told I would get an otter shot to order for 7s. 6d. 

 I preferred to buy four slides from Charles Eeid to show 

 to you. 



The great cry — indeed, the stereotyped parrot-cry — is that 

 they kill fish. This is not denied, but they also kill eels. In 

 a letter in ' The Scotsman ' of 14th November last this passage 

 occurs : " I would put in a good word for the otter. He 

 is said to be a great slayer of salmon. I doubt it. I once 

 saw a most interesting chase of a salmon by an otter in deep 

 water, and I can only say that I did not grudge my brother 

 sportsman his catch. A taxidermist told me that in one 

 season he stuffed no less than eleven otters. In none was the 

 trace of fish found other than the eel, and they were crammed 

 full of that dirty creature, so destructive to salmon ova and 

 fry, so prized by the Englishman as a delicacy, and regarded 

 by the Scotsman as a horror." Pike, frogs, rats, snails, and 

 herbs, and an occasional rabbit, are the food of the otter, and 

 in severe frost it may rob a hen-roost. As the saying is, 

 " There is no reasoning with an empty stomach." The otter is 

 often blamed when the heron or the kingfisher is the culprit. 

 Only once have I seen a salmon which had apparently been 

 killed by an otter, with a bit eaten out of the back. The 

 killed salmon found are mostly diseased or sickly, and the 



