would not have dined within a few inches of the edge of the water, but would
have dragged the bird away. There was no fox dung about, and there was Otter
dung within a few yards of the fragmentary remains.’
Mr. Harting in his excellent article on the Otter1 mentions an instance of an
Otter killing a cock grouse on the open moor at Dalnaspidal in Perthshire in
November 1885, and the late James Keay, the keeper at Murthly, showed me the
remains of a hen-pheasant undoubtedly killed by an Otter in a covert by the
Tay. The track led from the river, which was half frozen over, up the hill, into
the wood; and curious to see where the beast had gone, he followed it to the spot
where the Otter had pounced on and killed the pheasant, which it had partially
eaten.A
lthough so shy a creature, an Otter has been known to seize a trout hooked
by an angler, and to break away with both the line and the fish,2 whilst an Otter
is said to have been actually hooked by an angler.8 Mr. Douglas English sends
me the following note of an Otter taking a live roach from the line of Mr, M ,H .
Pigou at Dartford, Kent. Mr, .Pigou thus describes the incident: ‘ Whilst fishing
for pike with a live roach from a punt on June 23, 1904, an Otter took my bait.
I did not see the float disappear, being at the moment engaged in baiting the
water. Some line had run out before I raised the rod and struck what I took to
be a large pike. This, however, had no effect in checking the line, which continued
to run; and so strong was the rush that the rod’s point was pulled down to the
surface of the water. Possessing only a thin line I had to give way owing to the
heavy strain. As I did so the line slackened and an Otter’s head appeared out of
the water about thirty yards away, looking straight at me. Then he dived and made
for the bank, and the strain recommenced, until the Otter landed and disappeared
among some rushes, at which the hooks and bait came away.
Speaking generally of the food of Otters Mr. Arthur Heinemann has an
excellent note in the ‘ Fie ld ’ (December 17, 1904), which I must quote at length.
‘ Just as pheasants do not form the staple food of foxes, so trout and salmon do
not form the staple food of Otters. Certainly Otters do not get trout and salmon
in many rivers and streams in the Midlands or East Anglia, yet they exist there
in considerable numbers. Devonshire, again, is pre-eminently a county of trout
streams and salmon' rivers, yet the Dartmoor and Cheriton packs of Otter hounds
have never found Otters half so plentiful there as they are in Somersetshire, whose
1 Zoologist, January 1894, pp. 2-10 and pp. 4i~47- * Cf. Field, October 16, 1875, and July 1, 1899.
3 Field, October a, 1897.
muddier waters, containing more coarse fish and eels, have always attracted a
larger stock of Otters for the Culmstock pack. Nor is this a question of preservation,
for all three countries have been hunted by Otter hounds for many years,
and Otters are equally well preserved in each. Personally, I believe that trout are
too nimble even for such good swimmers as Otters, and there are many hollow
banks and rocky hovers into which they can get and be out of the reach of their
pursuers. Moorhens are a favourite food with the Otter, and it is only natural
to believe that they will occasionally take a duck, though in this case rats are far
more likely to be the culprits. Though an animal in captivity will eat many
things it does not get in a wild state, yet one may safely say that careful
observation of its preference in the former affords some indication of its preference
in the latter.
I have now a tame Otter which has been brought up from a tiny cub, and
these notes may, perhaps, throw some light on the question of what an Otter eats,
Loo was dug out one day last June, on the Torridge, and then weighed about
i i lb. She readily took to the bottle, which was a Mawe’s patent feeder, filled
with much diluted milk, one part milk to three parts of water, and given
lukewarm. She would lie on the ground and clasp the bottle with her little pads
and suck away contentedly. She is now about the size and weight of a big
rabbit, but, as it is unlucky to weigh babies,, Loo has not been put in the scales.
I find she will greedily devour snails, shells and all, thus differing from a badger,
which always spits out the shells. A trip to the seashore discovered her fondness
for small crabs, which she would also eat shell and all. She is now fed principally
on herrings and rabbits, which latter she will skin and turn inside out like
a glove. I have seen a heap of rabbits’ . skins similarly treated on the Porlock
Marshes, which I now think must have been the work of Otters, which I have
at various times spurred there. Loo often leaves the heads and tails, o f fish, but
not always, though she will hardly ever eat the roe. Small birds and moorhens
she enjoys, but will not look at field-mice. A rat in a cage excited her greatly
■when put together in a tub, and she went for it, but would not kill it. I have
only been lucky enough to get one big frog for her, but this, her first one, she
went for at once, and ate every morsel of it, though I have usually found the
eyes and skin of frogs left behind by wild Otters. At first Loo did not care
much about going into the water, and even now she does not dive very deep.
She will retrieve anything like an apple or potato or stick that catches her eye or
that I throw in for her. Swimming along the bed of a stream, she will shove her