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Show 1889.] DIFFERENT SPECIES OF OTTER. 19/ noted, however, that Kerr1, and not Turton, is the earliest authority for the scientific name Lutra canadensis; also that F. Cuvier's " L. canadensis" 2 appears not to be this species at all, having been founded on a skull which, although marked " Loutre du Canada," proves, on a personal examination in the Paris Museum, to be really referable to L. vulgaris. This point is of some importance in relation to the same author's description of his " Lutra enudris,:' as the characters of the latter, which he compares to those of " l'espece precedente," would be quite inexplicable were the latter the true Canadian Otter (his Lutra lataxina). Of the Neotropical species I may first give the synonymy of the great Margined-tailed Otter of the rivers of Guiana and Brazil. This Otter is unquestionably, as suggested by Hensel and Nehring, the original Lutra brasiliensis of the early authors, a name that Dr. Gray wrongly applied to one of the smaller species, while he called the present animal " Pteronura sambachii." The claims of this Otter to generic rank have already been discussed; its specific synonymy is as follows:- LUTRA BRASILIENSIS. Lutra brasiliensis, Zimm. Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 316 (1780) (also of Kerr, F. Cuvier, Fischer, Burmeister, Hensel, Nehring, and others, but not of Gray). Lutra lupina and paraguaensis3, Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 213 (1821). Pteronura sambachii*, Gray,Charlesw. Mag. N. H. i. p. 580(1837). Of the other Neotropical Otters, Gray has associated the S. Brazilian " L. platensis " with the Chilian L. felina ; and Alston " has placed the Central-American Otter under the same specific name. The typical skull of L. platensis and also the specimen collected by Mr. Salvin at Santana Mixtan in Guatemala and referred to by Mr. Alston, are both, however, of the type found in Brazil and Guiana, to be referred to further on, and are markedly distinct from the true L. felina. The latter species is readily distinguishable from all other American Otters by its very much smaller size, the basal length of its skull being only about 80 to 85 millim. as compared to 95 or 100 in the eastern species, by its relatively shorter face, and by its lighter and more delicate teeth. The internal lobe of its upper p.1 is only about one half the size of that of ' L. platensis ' and its allies. The species also differs from other Otters in being almost exclusively marine in its habits. The distribution of L. felina presents some points for consideration. In the southern hemisphere it extends to the Straits of Magellan, 1 Mustela (Lutra) canadensis, Kerr, Linn. An. K. i. p. 173 (1792). 2 Diet. Sci. Nat. xxvii. p. 242 (1823). 3 Not Mustela (Lutra) paraguensis, Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 172 (1792), which is Chironectes minimus. 1 Afterwards spelt " sandbachii." 5 Biol. Centr.-Am., Mamm. p. 87 (1880). PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1889, No. XIV. 14 |
