THE SURVIVAL OF THE OTTER 125 
There are savage fights between two dog-otters who 
desire the same mate, and the strength of the parents 
is often severely taxed in providing for the young; 
but the main struggle for existence among these 
sharp-toothed, strong-jawed beasts of prey is not 
in any intra-specific competition, but in circumvent- 
ing difficulties and in securing food. 
The severest of tests is a hard and prolonged frost. 
At first it gives an added spice to life, for strings of 
wild-fowl arrive and the ice on the mere is a rare 
playground. It is possible for the otter to hunt 
for pike beneath the ice, for eels and tench buried 
deep in the mud. But there is circumstantial 
evidence of terrible experiences when the breathing 
holes in the ice freeze quickly and the otter is apt 
to be imprisoned below, when the parents are 
tied down by cubs too heavy to carry and not 
strong enough to travel, when the wild-fowl leave 
the sealed waters for the shore, when the snow 
threatens to smother the family. It is only in 
such straits that the otter, in desperation, begins 
to experiment by nights with the farmer’s ducks. 
This last resource is very restricted, however, and 
the conditions may prove too severe, the mother at 
last succumbing to her efforts to get food for herself 
and her offspring. “At Mullion, in Mount's Bay, 
one bitterly cold December, when the Poldhu 
stream was frozen and the sea too rough and dis- 
colored for the otter to fish, the poor creature 
in her extremity crept into a bungalow in the 
course of erection, and was there found curled up 
