The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-06

nest consists of an abundant supply oil
| grass, leaves, soft bark and sticks, and
several others often occupy the same nest
/ In the Northern States and in Canada the
young are born about the middle of April
but in the middle and Southern States
| they often appear month earlier.
The otter feeds chiefly on fish, which
he pursues through the water with mar
velous speed and agility. How the fish
! must dread him,-this terrible, blood
! thirsty dragon from another world, re-
| turning amongst them hour after hour
! each time to depart with one of their num-
Der. II we imagine some awful sea monster
| rushing up into our own town or city at
| frequent intervals throughout the day, to
seize and carry off a struggling man or
woman to be devoured in the depths of
| the ocean-a creature too powerful for us
| to combat, and from which we could not
| protect ourselves in any wayne may get
a faint idea of the terror with which an
otter is regarded by community of FISH.
| If you live in a part of the country
| where the otter has not been exterm!
mated, you may, with patience and good
field glass, learn much concerning his
habits. Occasionally, he may be seen ris-
| ing wet and shining from the river with
a FISH in his mouth. Sometimes he VIII
come out upon the shore to eat his prey,
or, if there is the half submerged trunk
| of a fallen tree lying in the stream, he is
likely to crawl up into that. II your ar
ing is good. you will distinctly catch the
sound of the crunching of bones, as the
powerful jaw muscles drive the sharp
teeth clean through the body of the I'M
| fortunate fish. Having eaten his victim,
he Will presently dive into the water in
search of another one.
Though the otter is we'll supplied with
teeth, the severe tests to which he puts
them wear them out in time. In the
young animals the CANNES often project
beyond the lips. but in old specimens all
the teeth are found to be very much worn,
sometimes down to the gums.
But the life of the otter is not all work
by any means. He is naturally of play
full disposition, and though the patent re-
ports may not show it, he is the inventor
of the toboggan.
Tobogganipg has always been his favor
lite sport, and he sometimes INDUCES in it
for hours at a time. For this game he
and his companions select high, Snow
covered bank.
Up this they toll until they reach the
top. AS the first one arrives he turns
round. lies down, bends his forelegs back
ward. gives himself a push with his hind
feet, and away he goes down the hill,
'bellywhoppers,' as the boys call it. He
is followed by second, a third, and
fourth, in rapid succession, and when they
have once got the hill packed, they keep
the pot a-boiling" until they are too tired
or too hungry to play the game any long
er. In the Southern States, where snow
banks are not to be found, they make
their slides Of wet mud, and seem to en-
joy the fun just as much
This habit of the animal is taken ad-
vantage of by trappers, who sometimes
set steel traps near the bottoms of slides
for the frivolous merrymaker5 to get their
feet into. Others set traps on the sub
merged parts of slanting logs which lie
in the streams, and as the offers attempt
TO climb out of the water they are caught.
Some hunters catch them by tying fish
to the pans of steel traps and then sink
ing the traps FIVE or ten feet below the
surface of the water. The offers dive for
the fish and when caught are soon
drowned.
In England a rather smaller otter than
the present species is hunted with otter
hounds, bred for this special purpose The
sport used to be much more popular than
it is today. A good desc ription of an otter
hunt may be found in Izaak Walton's
Complete Angler"
Though the otter feeds chiefly on fish,
when hungry he will not refuse other
kinds of animal food. and the bones of
wild ducks and other birds and animals
lave at different times been found In bis
nest beneath the bank.
Young offers are easily tanned and are
said to make faithful and interesting pets
In Sweden and other parts of Europe they
have been kept In captivity and trained to
catch fish for their master