﻿8 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 4. NtO 12. 



specimens of Luira capens is which I have shot, although the 

 natives have assured me that it really eats fish. An old 

 negro who was a good observer has told me that the Claw- 

 less otter is too clumsy to catch fish, it is only in the dry 

 season when the fishes get confined to small pools that it 

 succeeds in its fishing.» »It gives birth to 4 — 5 youngs at a 

 time.» 



»The native name of the Clawless otter all round the 

 upper Zambeze is »Baw» (english pronounciation).» 



»The Clawless otter defends itself readily against a pointer 

 dog if such a one comes too close up to it or tries to bite it.» 



»The natives hunt the otter in the water and spear it 

 when it comes to the surface. They sell the skin to the 

 white men, and in almost every craal otter skins are to be 

 seen.» 



The most interesting point in this communication for the 

 present purpose is the statement that the Clawless otter of 

 Rhodesia chiefly feeds on crabs (as I suspected when I per- 

 ceived the structure of the dentition and the comparative 

 weakness of the skull). Mr. Sandberg has added that crabs 

 are very plentiful in the native haunts of this otter. If now 

 the skulls of these two subspecies of African Clawless otters 

 are compared with the skull of a Common otter from Europé 

 it is easily seen that the skull of the Otter from Rhodesia is 

 less transformed and specialised than that of the typical 

 Lutra capensis. With regard to the dentition this makes 

 itself apparent in the somewhat more pointed and higher 

 cusps of the premolars and molars in the Rhodesia otter than 

 in the Cape otter, and likewise in the comparatively smaller 

 inner lobes of pin^ and m^ in the former (see the plate). 

 With regard to the parallel direction and the general shape 

 of the pterygoid processes, as well as with regard to the 

 comparatively weaker development of different crests, pro- 

 cesses and grooves for muscular insertion the Rhodesia otter 

 stånds somewhat nearer the common otter-type than the true 

 Cape otter does. On the whole it may be said that the jaws 

 and the teeth with their sharply pointed cusps which fit in 

 betAveen those of the opposite jaw in the Common otter are 

 much better adapted to catching and holding a slippery prey 

 (fishes) and even, thanks to the sectorial edges of the pre- 

 molars and molars, to cutting it into pieces than the corres- 



