SYNONYMY OF LUTRA CANADENSIS. 295 



(lition of fiirriness or nakedness of the soles, together with the 

 special tuberculation of the latter. The various American 

 species may readily be determined by attending to these par- 

 ticulars. 



There is but a single well-determined North American species 

 of this genus. This is so distinct from the European, with 

 which it was long confounded, that 1 am tempted to place it in 

 a different subgenus, grounded on various cranial peculiarities 

 that might be enumerated, and only refrain from so doing 

 ill my ignorance of what intermediate forms of crania other- 

 species may present to connect the extremes seen in L. vulgaris 

 and L. canadensis. Other American species agree closely with 

 L. cayiadensis in cranial characters; and it is not improbable 

 that the species of this hemisphere may all be subgeuerically 

 different from those of the Old World. I shall, however, con- 

 sider them as simply Lutra. 



Besides L. canadensis, moreover, there is a perfectly distinct 

 Mexican species, Lutra caUfornica of Gray (not of Baird), which 

 is said, and I believe correctly, to extend into the United 

 States along the Pacific side. I think it will be found, as 

 already supposed by some, to be very extensively dispersed 

 along the western shores of N"orth, Middle and South America. 

 It appears to be as distinct from the L. hrasiliensis as it is from 

 L. canadensis, and I have no doubt will ultimately be estab- 

 lished as a second good species of Otter of the United States, 

 though under a name long prior to that imposed by Gray. Buc 

 as I have seen only Mexican skins of this animal, I cannot now 

 introduce it to our fauna. The point is discussed beyond. 



The ]\ortli Afliierican Otter, 



Liiitra canadensis. 



Plate XVII. 



Mustela canadensis, Turton, S. N. i. 1806, 57 (not Mustela canadenns, id. ibid. 59, which 

 is M. pennanti, the Pekan. Not of Scbreber nor of Erxleben nor of authors). ' 



Intra canadensis, "F. Guv. Diet. Sc. Nat. xxvii, 1823, 242.— Is. Geoff. Diet. Class, ix. 520."— 

 J. Sab. App. Frankl. Journ. 182.3, 653.— Less. Man. 1827, 154, no. 414.— Gnff. An. Kingd. 

 T. 1827, 130, no. 362.— Fi^^ch. Syn. 1829, 225.— Rich. F. B.-A. i. 1829, 57, no. 20.-E>nviolis, 

 "Rep. Quad. Mass. 183w,25"; Eep. Quad. Mass. 1840, 46.-ii;ic/i. Zool. Voy. Beechey,* 

 18.39, 4.—2faxim. Reise N. Am. i. 1839, 211; Arch. Naturg. 1861, 236; Verz. N. A. Sang! 

 1862, 60, pi. 8, f. 6 (OS penis).— Z>e Kay, N. Y. Zoiil. 1. 1842, 39, pi. 3, f. 1, pi. 33. f. 

 1, 2, 3 (.skuU). —Linsley, Am. Journ. Sei. xliii. 1842. —.—Schinz, Syn. i. 1844, 349, 

 no. 5.—Aud. eg Bach. Q. N. A. ii. 1851, 2, pi. 51.— Woodh. Sitgreaves's Rep. 1853,' 

 44.— Kenn. Tr. Illinois Agric. Soc. for 1853-4, 1855, 578.-Giebel, Sang. 1855, 789.— 

 Bcesley, Geol. Cape May, 1857, 131. -Bd. ?J. N. A. 1857. 184, pi. 38, £«. b, c, d, e.— 

 Billings, Cauad. Nat. and Geol. i. 1857, 22S.— Samuels, Ninth Ann. Eep. Mats. Agric. 



