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Show 194 MR. O. THOMAS ON THE [-^Pr- 2, is possible to make out anything from them, are far more like those of L. vulgaris than L. sumatrana. Independently, therefore, of the skull, I should place " L. aurobrunnea" as a synonym of L. vulgaris. The skull (" L. nepalensis") presents an interesting example of the difficulty of making out the species of Otter from cranial characters alone, for while both Gray and Blanford have looked upon it as showing close affinities to the hairy-nosed L. sumatrana, I am convinced, on the other hand, that it is only the skull of a female Lutra vulgaris, more or less degenerated by living in captivity. Thus it shows unequivocal traces of confinement in the peculiarly roughened and more or less diseased character of the bone, especially round the bases of the canines. Now the only differences that I can find between this skull and that of an undoubted L. vulgaris ( $ ) lie in its rather smaller size and a general weakness in dentition, both easily explainable on the theory of the animal having been brought up in captivity. Should this view be correct, the species (No. 94 of Mr. Blanford's work) must be altogether expunged from the list of the Mammals of British India, as both L. aurobrunnea and L. nepalensis will come under L. vulgaris (No. 92). Nor can its place be taken by the true hairy-nosed Otter, L. sumatrana, which, so far as is yet known, does not occur north of Malacca. The individual identity of the skull of "L. nepalensis" and the skin of "L. aurobrunnea" is rendered at the same time both more probable and less important by the independent reference of each to L. vulgaris. It may also just be noted that the skin is clearly that of a female. (3) Lutra macrodus, Gray, P.Z. S. 1865, p. 128; Cat. Carn. B. M . p. 105 (1869). This Otter, described by Dr. Gray from two fine skins said to have come from Brazil, has long been a puzzle to workers on American Mustelidae. The skull proves that it is entirely distinct from any previously known Brazilian Otter, and I should unhesitatingly recognize it as a valid species, were it not that no difference whatever can be found, either external or cranial, between it and the Indian Lutra barang (species B above). As to the locality of the types, Dr. Gray expressly states that " M . Parzudaki assured m e that he had received the pair direct from Brazil, from a collector who shot them ;" but in spite of this assurance I am inclined to believe that some change of specimens or other mistake occurred, and that they really came from the Indian Region. Other Brazilian specimens since received and referred by Dr. Gray to L. macrodus prove, on an examination of their skulls, to be really quite different from it, so that the locality for the originals has never been confirmed. Considering, therefore, these facts, I look upon " L. macrodus" as a synonym of L. barang, at least until any such Otter is found in South America-a contingency that would-be describers of new species of Neotropical Otters should be prepared for. |