CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 263 
mals are likely to remain ‘perfectly neat and 
healthy and they will breed regularly and grow 
fine coats. The best should always be kept for 
breeding, and so the stock will be steadily 
improved. 
The beautiful otter. The noble and beauti- 
ful otter has become so rare south of the north- 
ern wilderness, or outside of large tracts of 
southern swamp-lands, that it has little claim 
to inclusion in a book devoted to the industrial 
aspects of our wild quadrupeds. The food of 
otters is mainly fish; and in a preserved stream 
they may do vast damage to the angler’s 
treasures by devouring numberless trout. 
They also catch and kill many muskrats. 
Merriam, in his natural history of the Adiron- 
dacks, and Seton in his Northern. Mammals, 
give extensive biographies of this most inter- 
esting and most intelligent of the mustelid 
race. 
This brings us to the related group of fur- 
bearers which includes the badgers and skunks. 
The misunderstood badger. Our badger is 
very similar to the European one, and formerly 
occurred wherever west of the Alleghanies un- 
