COMMON OTTER* 
441 
Si nidum tenerosque ferae deprendere puUos 
Contigit; absenti sobolem furabere matri; 
Et dum mollis adhuc aetas facilisque doceri, 
Piscandi cicurem Lutram formabis ad artes : 
Namque ubi transverse steterint suspensa fluento 
Lina j cavernosos rimabitur ilia recessus, 
Ejectos specubus pisces in retia trudens j 
Ut canis excitos agit in venabula cervos, 
Et leporum presso sequitur vestigia rostro." 
Should chance, within their dark recess, betray 
The tender young, bear quick the prize away* 
Tam'd by thy care, the useful brood shall join 
The wat'ry chace, and add their toils to thine 5 
From each close lurking-hole shall force away 
And drive within thy nets the silver prey : 
As the taught hound the timid stag subdues. 
Or o'er the dewy plain the panting hare pursues." 
Lastly, The Count de Buffon himself, in his 
sixth supplemental volume, retracts his scepticism 
on this subject, and has published a letter from 
the Marquis de Courtivron relative to a tame 
Otter kept in an abbey at Autun, in the year 
1775, &c. This Otter was a female, and had 
been taken extremely young, and reared with 
milk till it was two months old, when it was fed 
with soup, fruits, pulse, meat, fish, &c. which 
latter, however, it would not eat unless perfectly 
fresh. It was as tame as a dog, and would come 
whenever it was called by its name. It would 
also play with a dog and cat with which it had 
been early acquainted, but shewed great animo- 
sity against other dogs and cats which happened 
to approach it. This Otter chiefly inhabited a 
V. I. p. II. 29 
