THE Otter is a voracious animal, but fonder of fish than of flesh: He never quits the margins of rivers or of lakes, and often depopulates the fish-ponds. He swims with more ease than the beaver; for the latter has membranes on all his feet. He swims almost as quick as he walks. He never goes to the sea like the beaver; but traverses the fresh waters and rivers to very considerable distances. He often swims [232] [PLATE XCIV here] under the water, and, after remaining pretty long, ascends to the surface for air. Properly speaking, he is not an amphibious animal, or an animal that can live equally in air or in water. He is not formed for continuing in the latter element; for, like other terrestrial creatures, he requires the aid of respiration. When in pursuit of a fish, if he chances to be entangled in a net, he drowns; and we perceive that he has not had time to cut a sufficient quantity of the meshes to effectuate his escape. His teeth resemble those of the martin; but they are proportionally longer and stronger. For want of fishes, crabs, frogs, water-rats, or other food, he gnaws the young twigs, and eats the bark of aquatic trees; he likewise eats the young herbage in the spring. He is neither afraid of cold nor of moisture. The female comes in season in winter, brings forth in March, and the litter consists of three or four. Young animals are generally beautiful; but the young otter is not so handsome as the old. A head ill-shaped, ears placed low, eyes small and covered, a lurid aspect, aukward [sic] motions, an ignoble and deformed figure, and a kind of mechanical cry which he repeats every moment, seem to indicate a stupid animal. The otter, however, acquires industry with age, sufficient, at least, to carry on a successful war against the fishes, who, both with regard to sentiment and instinct, are much inferior to other animals. But I can hardly allow him to have [233] the talents of the beaver, or even the habits ascribed to him, such as that of always ascending the rivers, in order to swim the more easily down the current, when loaded with his prey;* that of sitting up and flooring his house to exclude the water; that of hoarding a store of fishes, in case of scarcity; and, lastly, that of being easily tamed, of fishing for his master, and even brining the fish into the kitchen. All I know is, that the otters dig no habitations for themselves; that they take possession of the first hole they find, under the roots of poplars or willows, in the cliffs of rocks, and even in piles of floating wood; that they deposit their young on beds made of twigs and herbs; that we find in their habitations, heads and bones of fishes; that they often change their places of abode; that they banish their young at the end of six weeks or two months; that those I attempted to tame, endeavoured to bite, though they were only taking milk, and unable to eat fish; that some days after, they became more gentle, perhaps because they were weak or sick; that, so far from being easily accustomed to a domestic life, all of them which I attempted to bring up, died young; that the otter is naturally of a savage and cruel disposition; that, when he gets into a fish pond, he is equally destructive as the polecat in a hen-house; that he kills many more fishes than can eat, and then carries off one in his mouth. [234] [PLATE XCV here]
Though the otter does not cast his hair, his skin is browner, and sells dearer in winter than in summer; it makes a very fine fur. His flesh has a disagreeable fishy taste. His retreats exhale a noxious odour, from the remains of putrid fishes; and his own body has a bad smell. The dogs chace [sic] the otter spontaneously, and easily apprehend him when at a distance from water or from his hole. But, when seized, he defends himself, bites the dogs most cruelly, and sometimes with such force as to break their leg-bones, and never quits his hold till death looses his jaws. The beaver, however, who is not a very strong animal, pursues the otters, and permits them not to live upon the banks possessed by the latter.
This species, though not very numerous, is spread over Europe from Sweden to Naples; and we find them even in North America.* They were well known to the Greeks,+ and probably extend over all the temperate climates, especially in places which abound with water; for the otter can neither dwell in burning sands, nor in dry deserts. He equally flies barren rivers, and those that are too much frequented. I believe none of them are to be found in very warm countries; for the jiya or carigueibeju,+ which is found [235] at Cayenne,* and has been named the Brasilian otter, appears to be a different species: Whereas the North American otter resembles the European in every article, excepting that his fur is blacker and finer than that of the Swedish or Muscovite otter.+
Ponotoppidan assures us, that, in Norway, the otters frequent the salt as well as the fresh waters; and that they live among the fragments of rocks, from which the hunters decoy them by imitating their voice, which consists of a low kind of whistle. He adds, that they eat only the fatty parts of fishes; and that a tamed otter, which was fed with milk, brought fish daily to the house.3
In some notes communicated by M. de la Borde, I find that there are three species of otters in Cayenne; the black, which weighs 40 or 50 pounds; the yellowish, which weighs 20 or [236] 25 pounds; and the small grayish kind, which weighs not above three or four pounds. He farther remarks, that these animals are very frequent in Guiana, along the rivers and marshes where fishes abound: They sometimes appear in numerous troops, and are so fierce that they cannot be approached. Their bite is cruel, and they defend themselves against the dogs. They litter in holes which they dig in the banks. They are often tamed and brought up in houses. I have remarked, says M. de la Borde, that all the animals of Guiana are easily accustomed to a domestic state, and become even troublesome by their familiarity.
M. Aublet, a learned botanist formerly quoted, and M. Olivier, surgeon to the King, who have long resided in Cayenne, affirm, that there are otters in that country so large, that they weigh 90 and 100 pounds. They live in the great and unfrequented rivers, and their heads often appear above the water. Their cry is heard at great distances; their hair is very soft, but shorter than that of the beaver, and generally of a dark brown colour. They live upon fish, and eat likewise the grains which fall into the water from the banks of the rivers.
I have added the figure of a small animal sent me from Guiana, under the name of the small fresh-water otter of Cayenne, which appears to be the third species mentioned by M. la Borde. It is only seven inches long, from [237] the end of the nose to the extremity of the body. The tail of this small otter, like that of the water-rat, has no hair; its length is six inches seven lines, and five lines thick at the origin, diminishing gradually to the extremity, which is white, though the rest of the tail is brown; and, in place of hair, it is covered with a rough granulated skin, like chagreen; it is flat below and convex above. The whiskers, and the long hairs under the eye, are about an inch in length. All the under part of the body and head, as well as the fore-part of the fore-legs, is white. The top and sides of the head and body are marked with large brownish black spots, and the intervals are of a yellowish gray colour. The black spots correspond on each side of the body. There is a white spot above the eye. The ears are large, and seem to be longer than those of the common otter. The legs are short; the fore-feet have five unconnected toes; there are the same number in the hind-feet, but they are connected with membranes. [238] [PLATE XCVI here]
* The otter has six cutting teeth, and two canine, in each jaw; five toes on each foot, each toe connected by a strong membrane. He has short ears, eyes placed near thenose, thick lips, and large whiskers. The whole colour of his body is of a deep brown, except two small spots on each side of the nose, and another below the chin: His legs are short, thick, loosely joined to the body; capable of being brought to a line with the body, and of performing the part of fins: Each toe is connected to the other by a broad strong web. His length is 23 inches, and that of the tail 16; Pennant, Synops. of quad. p. 238.
In Greek, [a word in Greek letters I can’t reproduce]; in Latin,Lutra, Lytra, Lutrix, Lutris; in Italian, Lodra, Lodria, Loutra; in Spanish, Nutria; in German,Fischotter; in Swedish, Witter; in Polish, Wydra; in French, La Loutre..
Lutra; Gesner.hist. quad. p. 684. Icon. animal. quad. p. 85
Lutra; Ray Synops. quad. p. 187. Klein, quad. p. 91.
Mustela Lutra, plantis palmatis nudis, cauda corpore dimidio breviore; Linn. Syst. nat. p. 66.
Lutra castanei caloris. Brisson, Regn. anim. p. 277 [back to page232].
* See Gesner, hist. quad. p. 685 [back to page 234].
* See le voyage de la Hontan, tom .2. p. 38.
+ See Arist. Hist. animal. lib. 8. cap. 5.
3. Jiya quae et carigueibeju appellatur a Brasiliensibus; Marcg. Hist. Brasil. p. 234. Lutra Brasiliensis; Ray, Synops. animal. quadrup. [235] p. 189. Lutra police digitis breviore; Linnaeus. Lutra atri coloris, macula sub gutture slava; Brisson. Regn. animal. p. 278 [note: This note straddles two pages, with the break occurring where indicated above. Also note that the printer used the “plus” sign to indicate both the second and third notes on the page; although he used the normal (i.e., “double plus sign”) in the note to distinguish the third note on the page. I kept to the original in the text. Back to page 235].
* Lutra nigricans, caudâ depressa et glabrâ; Barrere, hist. de la France equinoxiale, p. 155.
+ See le voyage de la Hontan, tom. 1. p. 84.
3. Pontop. Nat. Hist. of Norway [back to page 236].