﻿2 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND -4. NIO 12. 



The fur of Mr. Sandbero'» otter is dark brown and the 

 wool-hairs as well are broadly tipped with brown. 



The ears are entirely brown. The dark patches in front 

 of the eyes and above the base of the whiskers are much 

 pronounced, as Thomas describes to be the case in the type 

 of L. c. hindei. The whiskers themselves appear to consist 

 of a considerably smaller number of bristles than in a speci- 

 men of the tnie L. capensis, perhaps only two thirds of the 

 number in the latter. The single bristles are also shorter in 

 the otter from Rhodesia so that the longest do not attain a 

 length of 5 cm. but in a specimen of the South African race 

 the longest bristles measure 8V2 cm., although stunted at the 

 tip. This is evidently a characteristic of biological impor- 

 tance. 



To judge from the dry skin which is not at all stretched 

 the length of head and body may have been about 90 cm. 

 and that of the tail about 53 cm. It is thus a very large 

 otter and the skin seems much larger than that of a speci- 

 men from the Cape Colony, Knysna, which is also said to 

 have been an old male. W. L. Sclater^ gives the dimen- 

 sions of »a large mounted specimen in the South African 

 Museum» as follows »head and body 32, o» inches = about 

 81 cm., and »tail 10,o» inches=about 46 cm. To judge from 

 this the Clawless otter of Rhodesia- would seem to be even 

 larger than its relative in the Cape Colony. Even supposing 

 that the latter can attain a greater size than Sclater's 

 quoted measurements indicate, it is evident that the Claw- 

 less otter of Central Africa is not its inferior in length, al- 

 though more slender. Mr. Sandberg informs me that the 

 true specimens Lutra capensis which he has shot in other 

 places seemed larger to him, but added that this might 

 depend upon that their head was larger and that they were 

 much broader över the neck. In fact, the size of Mr. Sand- 

 berg's otter from Rhodesia agrees with that of another sub- 

 species of Clawless otter described by Thomas from Abyssinia 

 under the name of Lutra capensis meneliki.^ This is said to 

 be »verj large» and further down the dimensions of the type, 



' Mammals of South Africa. 1900. 



* Thomas does not give any communieation about the approximate 

 size of body and tail of the type of L. capensis hindei. 

 = Proc. Zool. Soc. 1902, p. 309. 



