BEEVER AND COMPANY

Young Mr. Davis, a zoo curator, bach-ed it with a series of otters in his suburban home, and here reports on problems and peccadilloes. Appropriately he compares his recital with Browning's duchess-dispatching Duke, as one after another of his otters succumb, with the exception of Mimsy, zoo-bound because of her evil disposition, and Sam, still current. Star of the otter parade was ""Beever,"" whose astounding rate of destruction brought ""otter-proof"" improvements to the Davis' home; who constructed the initial stages of papier mache with toilet paper and a tub-full of water; who brought about wild (but bloodless) encounters with Pixie, the household fennec (a desert fox). Davis draws some carefully tentative conclusions as to otter behavior and physiology, but he is content, in the main, to view his companions doing the things they hadn't otter. More good sport than science, but will be irresistible to the home naturalist.