88 



MAMMALIA. 



the poultry-yard, and even to prey upon young lamias. It can dive 

 and swim under water with such spued and agiHty, that it can 

 overtake and secure, with great ease and certainty, almost any of 

 our fresh-water fishes. In confinement it will eat meat, and is said 

 to prefer it boiled. The number of cray-fish [Ca7nba7'ics) that the 

 Otter destroys in the course of a summer is almost incredible. 

 The Otter " sign " that one finds so abundantly about our lakes 

 and streams, on rocks and logs, often consists wholly of fragments of 

 the chitenoiis exoskeleton of this Crustacean. At other times fish 

 bones are mingled with the broken cray-fish shells. Otters are 

 restless creatures, always on the move, and arc; constantly rpam- 

 ing about from lake to lake, and river to river. They sometimes 

 go from place to place "just as it happens," so to speak; while 

 at other times they travel in definite routes, following one water 

 course for a number of days or weeks, and returning by another. 

 For example : an Otter will start from, say. Seventh Lake, and work 

 down the Fulton Chain to Moose River, down Moose to Black River, 

 and down this to the mouth of Independence or Beaver River; thence, 

 turning up stream, it finds its way back along either of these rivers, 

 perhaps stopping to fish in adjacent lakes on the way up, and finally 

 crossing to Big Moose and thence back to the r\ilton Chain. Or, 

 starting from the same point, an Otter may leave the r\ilton Chain 

 near the foot of Fourth Lake, cross to North Branch of Moose River, 

 thence to Big Moose, visiting the Saffords and West Pond on the 

 way. From Big Moose it may work up into the big marsh and over 

 to First and Second Gull Ponds, cross to Lake Terror and follow its 

 oudet through Rose Pond to Beaver River, and down the latter to 

 Black River, making the return trip up Independence to Big Moose, 

 and across, by way of Constable Pond. May's Lake, and Queer Lake, 

 to the Fulton Chain ; or it ma>' follow up Moose River directly to 

 the P\ilton Chain. These routes are not mere creations of my im- 

 agination, but have in great measure been verified by hunters who 

 have followed their tracks on the snow. Otters travel great distances 



