94 
CARNIVORES. 
Tame Otters. 
Hunting. 
the year, although the winter is the more usual time. The number of young in a 
litter generally varies from two to five, the cubs themselves being born blind. 
The otter is readily tamed if captured at a sufficiently garly age, 
and then becomes much attached to its owner, whom it will follow 
about after the manner of a dog. The natural instincts of these animals are taken 
advantage of by the native fishermen of some oriental countries to aid them in 
their avocations. The late Bishop Heber, when voyaging up one of the rivers of 
Bengal, states that his vessel passed “ a row of no less than nine or ten large and 
very beautiful otters tethered with straw collars and long strings to the bamboo 
stakes on the banks. Some were swimming about at the full extent of their strings, 
or lying half in and half out of the water; others were rolling themselves in the 
sun on the sandy bank, uttering a shrill whistling noise, as if in play. I was told 
that most of the fishermen in the neighbourhood kept one or more of these animals, 
who were almost as tame as dogs and of great use in fishing, sometimes driving the 
shoals into the nets, sometimes bringing out the larger fish with their teeth.” 
According to later authorities it appears, however, that the bishop was misinformed 
as to the otters being employed to catch fish with their teeth, their sole use in India 
being to drive the latter into the nets. In China, on the other hand, otters are 
actually employed in the former operation. 
Otter-hunting in England has been already alluded to briefly 
under the head of the otter-hound; and from the facts there mentioned 
it will be gathered that these animals are still fairly numerous in many of the 
wilder parts of the country. 
Otter fur, from its close texture, fine gloss, and rich colour, is 
much esteemed as a trimming, and commands a rather high price in 
the market. A large number of the otter skins imported into this country belong, 
however, to the North American species. Skins of the European species vary from 
five to thirty shillings in price. 
Fossil remains of the common otter have been obtained from the 
superficial deposits and caverns of this country and the Continent, 
and likewise from the so-called “ forest-bed ” of the Eastern Coast, which is some¬ 
what older. A fossil otter from the still more ancient Norwich Crag, belonging to 
the upper portion of the Pliocene period has, moreover, been identified with the 
present species. 
North American This otter ( L. canadensis ) is distinguished from the preceding 
otter. by the much larger size of the naked area at the tip of the muzzle, 
which extends far above and to the sides of the nostrils, instead of being entirely 
confined to the space between them, as in the latter. According to Dr. Coues, it is 
very variable in point of size and colour. It may, however, attain a total length 
of 4 feet or more, while the general colour of the fur is liver-brown with a purplish 
gloss, the chin, throat, and under-parts being paler. This species occurs over the 
whole of North America in suitable regions, although apparently nowhere very 
numerous; its northern range extending along the Mackenzie and other rivers 
nearly to the Arctic Ocean. 
There does not appear much that is especially noteworthy or 
peculiar in the habits of this species. Dr. Hart Merriam states that in 
Pelage. 
Fossil Remains. 
Habits. 
