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Show 1889.] DIFFERENT SPECIES OF OTTER. 199 to vary so much in these Otters that at present I feel quite unequal to a decision as to whether there are one, two, three, or four Neotropical species in addition to those already mentioned. Dr. A. Nehring, in a recent paper ', has boldly tried to settle the question by lumping all these flat-headed medium-sized Brazilian Otters under one heading, to which he applies the name of L. latifrons. To this I am unable to agree, as some of the Guianan specimens before me appear to be certainly specifically distinct from the South- Brazilian and from the Central-American specimens, but what names will have eventually to be applied to the different forms it is at present impossible to say. Lutra paranensis, Rengg. (1830), L. platensis, Waterh. (1839), and L. solitaria, Wagn. (1842), appear all to refer to the same animal ; while for Guianan specimens Lutra enhydris and L,. insularis, F. Cuv. (1823), will have to be reckoned with. Otters of the naked-nosed flat-headed type, which we may provisionally call L. paranensis, occur in the Straits of Magellan, where one was obtained by Dr. Coppinger, in La Plata (Darwin), Paraguay (Rengger), Rio Grande do Sul (Hensel, Ihering), Sao Paulo (Natterer), and in Central America (Salvin, Sumichrast, and others). There is also in the Museum a young Otter apparently of this form, which was said to have come from Mexico ; but its determination is rather doubtful, although it is certainly distinct from L. canadensis. Still further northwards there seems a possibility that this form occurs in Alaska2 and on the Mackenzie River3; and should this be the case, Pallas's " Viverra aterrima " (Schrenck's Lutra aterrima), from the far North-east of Siberia, may also prove to be the present widely-scattered species. Considering therefore the difficulties of the case, I propose to postpone the consideration of these forms of Otter to a future occasion, and hope that in the meanwhile collectors will help us by obtaining additional material, and also that other authors will contribute their quotas towards the attainment of a satisfactory solution of the question. To sportsmen and naturalists living abroad it may be pointed out 1 SB. Nat. Freund. Berl. 1887, p. 23. The new name is given on the ground that none of the half-dozen older names were given in the broader sense covered by Dr. Nehring's name, a plea that no respecter of nomenclature-rules could admit for one moment. To the few zoologists who could suppose such a proceeding admissible it may be pointed out that practically every species is originally described and named on one form only from a single locality, and that it is only afterwards that its variability and geographical range are properly made out. Probably Prof. Nehring would protest were some one to find a " Ctenomys minutus " in Chili, and were to re-name it on the ground that the describer had not included the Chilian form ; and yet this is only what Dr. Nehring has himself done in trying to supersede Lutra paranensis, Rengg, L. platensis, Waterh., L. solitaria, Wagn., and the other names previously given to members of this group of Otters. 2 Cf. Coues, Fur-bearing Animals, p. 301 (1877). 3 A new-born animal, apparently an Otter, collected by Mr. B. R. Ross at this locality, and now in the British Museum, is certainly not L. canadensis, and may be this species. 14* |