THE OTTER AND SEAL 53 



are due to inherited instinct, whereas others still 

 depend on parental instruction, I will give a 

 somewhat detailed history of this particular 

 otter. 



In July, 1909, a lad with his terrier was 

 walking on the banks of the Yare, near Maries- 

 ford, in Norfolk, when the dog went into a 

 hollow willow tree and emerged with a dead 

 otter cub in his mouth. Though the lad felt all 

 round the hole, he could not find any more. 

 Next day, however, he caught a cub about three 

 months old near the tree. This grew up to be 

 the animal whose peculiarities I am about to 

 describe. Soon after being captured the young 

 otter came into the possession of a lodge-keeper, 

 by whom she was kept for two years in a large 

 rabbit hutch. The hutch, which was four feet 

 long and two feet wide, was made of thin deal 

 boards, with ordinary wire netting in front. 

 Though she could have escaped from the hutch 

 in five minutes had she wished to do so, she only 

 left it of her own accord on one occasion, and 

 then returned home the next day. 



While confined in this manner the animal 

 was fed most erratically — scraps of meat off the 

 table, sometimes a cod's head, brought home on 



