THE OTTER AND SEAL 75 



ing in the Hebrides, and the instance related 

 on page 64 of how the mother went into the 

 river to have a look round before allowing her 

 cubs to leave the hover, occurred at least an hour 

 before sunset. 



In many parts of the world the otter fishes 

 throughout the day, and in 1917 I watched one 

 at work during the afternoon in the River Auja 

 on the Jaffa — Jerusalem front. 



The otters on my observation pond were with 

 me for nearly a year. The first arrival was the 

 tame female, whose early life had been spent in 

 a rabbit-hutch, but soon after she was joined by 

 a wild dog and bitch from Ireland. 



The wild bitch never settled down, and so, 

 after a month, was released on a Yorkshire 

 estate. 



At one time I had hopes that the dog and 

 the tame otter would breed, but in this I was 

 disappointed. I cannot, however, find any 

 authentic record of otters breeding in captivity, 

 though the experiment has been tried on several 

 occasions. 



At first the dog was an ugly customer to deal 

 with, and bit both myself and my man on more 

 than one occasion. After a month or two he 



