306 THE FOOD OP OTTERS 



of his books which tells directly against the view 

 expressed above. After giving minute instructions 

 how to set a trap for an otter, and describing how he 

 ' had some strong traps placed on a sandbank where 

 otters were in the nightly habit of landing,' he proceeds 

 as follows : — 



'I was rather amused at an old woman living at Sluie 

 on the Findhorn, who, complaining of the hardness of the 

 present times, when a "puir body couldna get a drop 

 smuggled whisky, or shot a rae [roe] without his lordship's 

 sportsman finding it out," added to her list of grievances that 

 even the otters were nearly all gone, " puir beasties." 



' " Well, but what good could the otters do you 1" I 

 asked her. 



'"Good, your honour? why scarcely a morn came but 

 they left a bonny gilse on the scarp doun yonder, and the 

 vennison was nane the waur of the bit the puir beasts ate 

 themselves." 



' The people here call every eatable animal " venison," or as 

 they pronounce it "vennison." For instance, they will tell 

 you that the snipes are "good vennison," or that the trout 

 are not good " vennison " in the winter.' ^ 



Luckily there is room in our rivers for both otters 

 and salmon; and there is far more probability of 

 salmon verging towards extinction through the drastic- 

 ally effective means of capture now in use, than there 

 is of the disappearance of so vigorous, wary, and furtive 

 a creature as Lutra vulgaris. 



Yes, furtive. It would add much to the interest of 

 a waterside ramble if one caught sight occasionally of 

 this beautiful animal. None of our native wild animals 



^ Wild SportB of the Highlands, chap, xii. 



