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Show 180 DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW OTTER. [Fe0- •"""J Bourbon, being the same picture as that exhibited by Mr. Tegetmeier at a Meeting of the Society on the 10th of April, 1866*. This paper will be printed entire in the Society's 'Transactions.' The following papers were read : - 1. Notice of Lutronectes whiteleyi, an Otter from Japan. By Dr. J. E. G R A Y , F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., &c. Mr. Henry Whiteley, junior, has brought with him from Hakodadi, in Japan, two specimens of a young Otter and their skulls. They appear distinct from the other Otters that are in the British Museum and from all the species I have described in my " Monograph of Mustelidee," published in the ' Proceedings of the Society' for 1865. They seem to belong to a peculiar group, which may be called LUTRONECTES. The muzzle bald, oblong transverse, with a straight upper and lower edge ; the upper edge of the nostril bald. Ears oblong, hairy. Feet rather large ; toes strong, webbed, covered with hair above, and bald beneath ; toes and palm-pads well developed, those of the palm separated from the toes by a broad bald space ; claws strong, acute. Tail conical, covered with hair. Skull elongate ; orbit very obscurely defined behind ; the flesh-tooth with a large internal lobe about two-thirds of the length of the outer edge. The toes in this genus are strong, thick, and well webbed, rather larger than in the typical Otters. The skulls are not quite the normal skulls of the genus Lutra, as they have scarcely an indication of any tubercle defining the upper hinder portion of the orbit, and only a very obscure angle on the front of the zygomatic process, defining, or rather separating the lower hinder part of the orbit from the mastoid cavity. In this respect the skulls are nearly intermediate in form between the skulls of Hydrogale and Barangia : they have the hinder edge of the orbit above and below rather more defined than in Hydro-gale, and yet less so than in Barangia, where the protuberances that define the orbit behind are much smaller than in Hydrogale. The genus differs from Hydrogale in the skin between the pads being bald as in the true Otters (Lutra). It agrees with Hydrogale and Lutra in the muzzle being entirely bald and square between the nostrils ; while in Barangia the muzzle is entirely covered with hair. The nose of the skull is short; the nasal aperture very oblique, edged on each side by the narrow intermaxillaries, which are continued up and separate the front half of the nasal from the maxillee; the infraorbital foramen is very large; the nasal extends back as far as the hinder edge of the maxilla on its sides. * See P. Z. S. I860, p. 201. |
