THE CAPE OR CLAWLESS OTTER 
and tail are seen, and on these occasions it has been 
mistaken for a large snake. However, as a general 
rule, the nose and head only are visible above water. 
On the slightest cause for alarm it sinks without 
a sound, emerging at some distance for a moment 
to breathe, and again sinks from sight. If the banks 
of the stream are covered with reeds or rushes, the 
otter, when alarmed in, midstream, disappears, and 
makes straight for the bank, where it emerges and 
lies concealed from view. 
It was quite a common sight to see a family party 
of otters swimming about in midstream on moon- 
light nights in the rivers in Natal. It is necessary 
to secrete oneself and remain perfectly still, for 
should a twig crack, or the slightest movement be 
made, the otters instantly sink, and are not seen 
again that night. 
In Natal Clawless Otters are common, not only 
along the banks of the larger rivers, but even the 
small spruits. A family of otters lived amongst 
the reeds and rushes in the Dorp Spruit at the lower 
end of an estate of mine at Pietermaritzburg. Most 
of the tenants, who were natives, kept fowls. 
Almost nightly one or more fowls were carried off. 
The tenants occasionally caught glimpses of an 
animal vanishing in the darkness, and thought it 
to be a dog. One moonlight night the fowls of a 
tenant set up a great din, and the owner, rushing 
out of his house, saw two animals disappear in the 
darkness. It had been raining during the night, 
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