TRAITS OF THE OTTER 
flexuous body, a tail very strong and broad at the base and 
tapering roundly to the end; short, stout limbs and webbed 
feet; and a bulldog-like head, with powerful jaws, bristling 
whiskers, small black eyes, and little pointed, closable ears. 
Males will average about three and a half feet in total length 
and weigh eighteen to twenty-four pounds; females are smaller. 
As the otter lives exclusively on fish, it is rarely met with 
far from a stream or pond, and frequently disports itself in the 
sea. As much at home in the water as the fish it chases and 
OTTER AND FISHER. 
captures by a speed and agility superior to their own, it yet 
must bring its catch ashore to be eaten and leaves the tail as 
a memento of the meal. Unfortunately it sees no reason to 
discriminate between those fish in which the angler is interested 
—often financially —and the baser sorts; and therefore in 
Europe, or wherever trout and salmon are “preserved,” the 
otter is regarded as vermin and vigorously persecuted. The 
chase of it then becomes of itself a sport of no mean kind, 
calling for the aid of specially bred hounds of great endurance 
and courage, since the otter is wily in eluding capture, must 
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