Otters, therefore, if kept within reasonable limits, do their share of good, and, like the fox, provide the very best of sport when hunted. When Reynard is rolled over by hounds it is the debt he pays for the privileged existence of himself and his kind, and the same thing applies to the otter. Given a good pack of hounds, hunting their district properly, otters will be kept sufficiently in check, and good sport will be enjoyed by riparian owners and others.
The only occasion on which an otter can do really extensive damage is when he gets access to a trout hatchery. Once he finds his way to the breeding ponds he will kill fish right and left. If, however, such places are properly fenced off—as they should be—they will never suffer from the attentions of otters. Swans and other wildfowl, herons, dabchicks, waterhens, kingfishers, frogs, cannibal trout, and eels do far more damage to fish and fish spawn than otters, and with the exception of certain wildfowl, provide no sport in return. The otter, like the fly-fisherman, is a sportsman, and for this reason the one should deal leniently with the other.
Otters do most of their feeding and travelling at night, but it is not an uncommon occurrence to find them abroad in daytime. In Canada we have on several occasions seen them on the ice during the day, and once while watching a deer runway near a river, a big otter floated downstream within twenty yards of us. Having fed up-stream during the night, an otter may take to some holt at the end of his journey, or he may float down with the current—if the water is fairly deep—and return to the holt from which he started. Although an otter can make wonderful headway against a strong current, he generally avoids rapids and rough water when travelling up-stream. On coming to such a place he lands, makes a detour, and enters the water again higher up. His feeding expeditions are not necessarily restricted to the main river, for he often explores side-streams, ditches, and other places, which lie at a considerable distance from deep water. He usually leaves his holt—or couch if he is lying rough—about dusk, and returns to it before daybreak. For the most part otters are silent creatures, but they whistle when calling to each other, and will snort and blow when playing together. In Canada their playgrounds are the "slides," and there two otters will gambol like puppies between the intervals of tobogganing down the bank.
Although an otter does not dig to any extent, he will, as already mentioned, scratch up sand or soft earth for a certain purpose, and his feet and claws aid him in securing crustaceans and other food. Although the otter is unable to climb like the marten, he can on occasion jump and scramble over high places in a wonderful manner. In the North, otters regularly travel deep ghylls and watercourses where they are obliged to climb to some extent, and when hard pressed by hounds it takes a very rough place indeed to stop an otter. In big coverts an otter will stand up before hounds like a fox, and will travel at a surprising pace.
On rough, rocky rivers, an otter's claws, particularly those on the hind feet, are often very much worn down. This may be accounted for by the state of the going. A mounted specimen now in our possession has the claws of the hind feet practically worn off, whereas the nails on the forefeet are nearly perfect.
There are probably few waters in Great Britain which are not at some time or other haunted by otters. Even in the vicinity of towns the marks of otters may be found beside canals and streams, the surroundings of which would appear to be anything but attractive to Lutra. Being chiefly a creature of the night, nomadic and elusive in its habits, the otter often spends a peaceful existence in the vicinity of human habitations, the occupants of which never dream that the "sly, goose-footed prowler" is a frequent visitor to their water. The majority of people have never seen an otter, except under a glass case in some museum, or within the confines of the Zoological Gardens. The angler, fishing at dusk, may sometimes be favoured by a glimpse of an otter, bent on the same errand as himself, but as a rule few otters are seen except when put down by hounds.
[CHAPTER III]
OTTER-HUNTING, PAST AND PRESENT
It was not until a comparatively recent date, that the otter became an accredited beast of chase. He was hunted, after a fashion, from the very earliest times, but the value of his skin—like that of the fox—had more to do with his capture than the sport he afforded.