15 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



it first. To such an extent, indeed, does it differ, that the 

 question whether it is flesh or fish has even arisen ! So 

 Izaak Walton — 



Piscator. I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a 

 pleasant question ; do you hunt a beast or a fish ? 



Himtsmaji, Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you ; 

 yet I leave it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians^ 

 who have made vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard 

 the question hath been debated among many great clerks, 

 and they seem to differ about it ; yet most agree that her 

 tail is fish ; and if her body be fish too, then I may say that 

 a fish will walk upon land (for an otter does so), sometimes 

 five or six or ten miles in a night.'' 



Pennant, indeed, saw an otter being cooked for dinner in 

 the kitchen of a Carthusian Convent. But if we (being free 

 from the pressure of perpetual maigre days) are unwilling 

 to deceive ourselves as to the zoological aflSnities of 

 Ltitra vulgaris^ we must acknowledge that the latter eats 

 fish, and a great deal of it too. Lithe and supple 

 as an eel, with long, flat body; short, broad, strong 

 tail ; and broad, web-toed feet ; the otter is almost 

 as much at home in the water as fish are. To have^ 

 therefore, otters inhabiting a reach of river, and to 

 keep up a large stock of fish therein, is an incompatible 

 condition of affairs.''' On the other hand, unless a stream 

 is very strictly preserved, and closely fished, an occasional 

 otter will do little harm, and even some good — for this 

 •reason : the otter having to satisfy his hunger likes a 



* I have lived all my life on the banks of a famous trout-stream in the North, and have 

 invariably found trout most abundant near the haunts of the otter. The otter destroys 

 fewer fish than is generally supposed ; its food consists mainly of fresh-water crayfish. 

 This may appear a bold statement, but it is a fact. It is confirmed by water-bailiffs and 

 fish-poachers. Of forty-five dead otters killed in hunting, in two only were there the remains 

 of fish food, and this consisted of eels — deadly enemies to trout streams or salmon 

 rivers. These forty-five otters were, for the most part, killed before six in the mornings 

 and, consequently, when their stomachs were most likely to contain traces of what had 

 been taken in their night's fishing. — Editor. 



