CBSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

Detailed explanation-1: -What guesses did the Londoners make about what Mij was? Ans: According to Maxwell, an otter is not recognised by an average Londoner. They made various guesses about what Mij was. They guessed it to be a baby seal, a walrus, a squirrel, a hippo, a beaver, a leopard, a bear cub and a brontosaur.

Detailed explanation-2: -Mijbil the Otter. What guesses did the Londoners make about what Mij was? Very few londoners knew that Mij was an otter. Most of them made wrong guesses such as baby seal, squirrel, walrus, beaver and bearcub etc.

Detailed explanation-3: -Some of them guessed that he was ‘a baby seal’ or ‘a squirrel’ or ‘a walrus’. Others also made fantastic guesses. One called Mijbil ‘a beaver’. Another called it ‘a bear cub’.

Detailed explanation-4: -Mijbil invented a game with a ping-pong ball that could keep him engrossed for half an hour at a time. He discovered that if he placed the ball on the high end of a slightly inclined slopy suitcase lid it would run down the length of the suitcase.

Detailed explanation-5: -Ans: Otters belong to a comparatively small group of animals called Mustellines, shared by the badger, mongoose, weasel, stoat, mink and others. Maxwell’s otter was of a race previously unknown to science and was at length named by zoologists Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli or Maxwell’s otter.