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Show 1895.] ON THE STRUCTURE AND HABITS OF THE SEA-OTTER. 421 Erinaceus libycus, Hempr. & Ehr. Symb. Phys. Decas ii. 1832; Dobson, Monogr. p. 16 (nee syn.). Erinaceus hypomelas, Brandt1, Bull. Ac. St. Petersb. 1836, p. 32. Erinaceus platyotis, Sundevall2, Vet.-Ak. Handl. Stockbolm, (1841) 1842, p. 232. Erinaceus cegyptius, Geoffroy3, Biippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 159. Erinaceus frontcdis, Dobson (nee E. frontalis, A. Smith), Monogr. p. 18. Erinaceus br achy dactylus, Tristram (not Wagner), Survey of Western Palestine, 1884, p. 25; Hart, Fauna & Flora of Sinai Petra, &c. 1891, p. 238, pi. i. fig. 2. Distribution. Lower Egypt; Sinaitic Peninsula; Palestine; Cyprus ; Turkey in Asia to Kirghis Steppes. In Africa it is confined to Lower Egypt. 3. Note on the Structure and Habits of the Sea-Otter (Latax lutris). By R. LYDEKKER. [Eeceived April 9, 1895.] Through the kindness of Mr. J. Cole Hartland, of Yokohama, I have received the following notes on the structure and habits of the Sea-Otter made by Mr. H . J. Snow, who for the last twenty years has been engaged in hunting these animals and fur-seals in the Kurile Islands. As they somewhat revolutionize tbe current ideas as to the position of the hind limbs, I think they are decidedly worth laying before the Society. Commenting on a reproduction of Wood's well-known figure given on page 98 of the second volume of ' The Boyal Natural History,' Mr, Hartland writes me that " The fore limbs are much shorter than represented, and when on shore the chest, as far as the end of the breast-bone, has the appearance of almost touching the ground. The abdomen is raised considerably from the ground and the hind flippers are doubled back, the Sea-Otter being incapable of placing its hind flippers in the position represented in the drawing. It occurred to Mr. Snow that the illustration may have been taken from a specimen shot by himself and set up by Ward of Eochester, N e w York, photos of which I enclose. The attitude of this specimen is quite misleading, and not at all that assumed by the animal when on shore. Mr. Snow has had several opportunities of getting good observations of these animals when on shore-on one occasion he saw some 20 or more on a rocky point Prof. Buchner has been so good as to inform m e that the spines on the head of tbe type are not divided into two lateral groups by an area destitute of spines, and that the spines are distributed quite as in E. auritus. 2 I ara indebted to Prof. F. A Smith, of Stockholm, for the information that in the type there is no bare area on the mesial line of the bead, and also for the opportunity to examine some of the spines of Sundevall's specimen. This name is taken from the unpublished Catalogue of Mammals in the Paris Museum, by (Etienne) Geoffroy St.-Hilaire. |
