3 2
Common Otter-to return to the bank from Which 9 B H D | on B |
presumably its owner is awaiting its return, and many mdtviduais H Q f l
broken at all of the habit of taking their captures on to the opposite bank an
having their meal there before returning to their owner, leaving the partly c° ns“ ” ed
feh tfehind them. In such a case the best thing to do is always to use the Otter
with a very thin cord -silk for preference—about ten yards longer than the widt
of the stream at its widest part: this permits the Otter perfect freedom D the
water, but also allows the owner to bring it back to the proper bank after a
capture. The line must be fine and yet strong. A silk fishing-line is light, fine
and strong, and the most suitable; it also him the merit of being cheap, as it
may be got from a halfpenny per yard upwards.' . . , . , , ,
Nevertheless; so experienced a man with Otters as the late Captain Salv.n told
me he had never succeeded in training an Otter to retrieve a fish He managed
to get one tame Otter to fetch in a floating board on which a fish was nailed.
When success seemed within his grasp the Otter strayed away one morning and
was shot.1 , I , ,. j I r .
Otters are fond of being played with and talked to, and I have noticed, a fact
to which Mr. Farnborough alludes, that they have the greatest: abjection to being
stroked on the head or touched about the nose and whiskers. In such circum-
stances they nearly always attempt to bite.
Mr. J . Davison has given an interesting account2 of an Otter that learnt to
hunt his own species.
‘ One Sunday afternoon, taking a walk down by the Thrum Mill, near Roth-
bury on the Coquet, to exercise our dogs, on getting to the top of the rocks one
of the puppies gave tongue, and out came an Otter, with two whelps by
her side, making for the river. We got in front, when the mother gained the
rocks; but we secured the two whelps. We took them home, and put them with
‘■ Bell” an Otter-hound, who had a litter of three puppies. One of the whelps
died but the other took to the hound, and throve famously: he mixed with the
puppies, but fought like a demon, and was soon master of the situation.
Wherever they went he went with them, fighting everything that he met with
He also became a pet with all the householders, who never missed a chance of
feeding him. His special treat'was bowls of milk and broth; to get these he
* Accounts of tame Otters are to be found in Rod and Gun, October 31, r 889; the Animal World, March and
August .896; Country life , April .899 1 and the F M , Man* *7, >897, and December .9, W
2 Field, 1881, p. m . See also Johnson’s Gamekeepers Directory.
would find his way into dairies, larders, &c. Thus he went on, until we had to
enter the puppies for Otter hunting. We had him fastened in a yard with high
walls, as we felt sure if we took him with us he would join his own species.
On our return he bullied and fought the entire kennel of five. About a week
after I had to go to Brinkburn Priory, and took the dogs with me. “ Sandy,”
the tame Otter, would go, and in the Coquet they soon got on the lair of an
Otter. They swam, him through a deep pool, when he took to the bushes. Soon
I saw “ Sandy,” side by side with “ Rufus,” close to the wild Otter. I said farewell
to “ Sandy,” but presently I heard the pleasant sound “ worry, worry.” I
thought “ Rufus ” had him, but on coming in sight, to my astonishment, “ Sandy ”
had him fast by the neck, and held him till the dogs came up. From that time
he was the leader in all our hunts, and was in at the. death of nearly twenty
Otters. But, a las ! poor Sandy soon came to his end. Love of broth led him
into the larder of the Star Inn. The cook, finding him wallowing in the broth,
struck him with the wooden ladle—more to frighten than to hurt him, but
his skull was fractured—and, after lingering for some days, he died, to the
inexpressible regret of all who knew him.’
As long as our ‘ women must walk g a y ’—and that will be till the end of the
chapter—so long will there be a demand for the beautiful pelt of the Otter, and so
long too will men continue to set gin-traps, the cruellest invention of modern
times, for their capture. In most Otter-hunting countries the gin-trap is not
much in use, but everywhere else in the North of England and Scotland this
abominable engine of destruction is set, often to inflict hours and even days of
horrible suffering on some of our most beautiful creatures. With wonderful
strength Otters often manage to drag one foot out of a trap, and have to go
about three-legged for life. On the subject of trapping Otters Mr. Tom Speedy
writes: 1 ‘ A small island on the Tweed covered with a species of dwarf willow,
immediately under the rocky eminence and ruin of Norham Castle, used to be a
favourite haunt of Otters. I have seen a dozen of his victims—heavy salmon, with
a small bit eaten out behind the head—whence I arrived at the conclusion that the
destruction to fish life by Otters must be great. Searching round the island,
I found the tracks on the sand where he had emerged from the water. Placing
a trap carefully covered on the spot, it was evident on the following morning
that an Otter had been caught, but that he had managed to drag his foot out and
escape. Being anxious that this should not happen again, I placed four traps a
1 Field, August 8, 1903.
VOL. II.