Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
Full Title
How to make and set traps : Including hints on how to trap moles, weasels, otter, rats, squirrels and birds. Also how to cure skins / by J. Harrington Keene.
Author
Keene, J. Harrington.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1902
Publisher
New York : Frank Tousey
Series
Ten cent handbooks > no. 40
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Ten cent handbooks -- no. 40
Topic
Trapping > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hunting > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hides and skins > Handbooks, manuals, etc.
About
More Details Permanent Link
Disclaimers
Disclaimer of Liability Disclaimer of Endorsement
OCR
EP a “ a
ie ae
all
22 HOW TO MAKE AND gE? TRAPS.
This is a faithful picture of the otter's remorseless and pre-
dacious nature. I caught one the other day.in an eel-vrate,
whither he had doubtless gone for the eels. The biter was,
however, bit, for the rush of wnrter was too powerful, and
on opening the door in the morning I found bim dead and
stiff,
The otter usually kills many more fish than it actually
wants for food, and as otters generally hunt in pairs, it is
not uncommon ‘to find in the Morning as many as thirteen
or fourteen prime trout—in* an ordinarily plentiful river, of
course—killed ana only partly eaten. Like the lord mayor's
jester, however, the otter knows What is good, or, indeed,
best, for it eats ‘away the shoulders of the fish, leaving
the rest to rot or be dévoured by rats.
I have said it is graceful, aud so it is, ina remarkable de-
gree. Let me advise you, if you live in New York, to visit
the Zoological Gardens, in Central Park, and watch the tine
sinuous turns and Sweeps a8 the otter seizes or seeks for its
prey. Its body is long and flexible, and its feet short and
webbed, and the adjacent muscles are of immense muscular
power. Its eyes are large, the ears short, and it is bewhis-
kered like a Viking. Its coat ig doable, like that of. the
seal. Long glossy hairs form the outer one, and a short
waterproof woolly waistcoat comprises the inner, so that
neither cold nor wet can effect the well-being of. this am-
phibious hunter. In the daytime it hides itself in its hole,
which usually is some feet deep in the bank, above high-
water mark, but at nicht its depredations commence; and
when the female has young, .-say -five, and the male otter
works with her, ashe generally does, I estimate that from
thirty to forty fish per night are, if anything, rather within
the number than beyond. Gan any one deny, therefore,
that the otter comes within the common-sense definition of
vermin? ,
If the otter be taken’ young, and great kindness and care
be shown it, it may be transferred from the category of ver-
min into that of ‘ pets,” and I do not think there is a much
more interesting pet in existence, and I recollect one which
used to run about after its master at Eton, England, some
years since. A friend of mine (head tiver-keeper on a novle-
man’s estate) took a tame one from an old poacher which
the latter had constantly employed to catch fish and bring to
him. My friend tells me that when he caught the poacher he
had some sixty fine trout, scarcely injured, in a bag, all of
which had been captured by the otter, *
There are many instances of a similar character: referred
to in the natural history bocks which I cannot produce here.
It is suflicient to say that otter-taming, and even the utilizing