EXTINCT NORTH AMERICAN OTTER. 323 



somewhat tedious, it is believed that the Otter may be certainly 

 domesticated, and rendered subservient to our use 



'' The habits of the Otter, and its rank fishy taste, have pro- 

 cured for it the distinction of being permitted by the Church 

 of Rome to be eaten dn maigre days. The quiet humour of good 

 old Izaak Walton could not rest without a sly hit at this fact: — 



" Piscator, I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a pleasant 

 question: do you hunt a beast, or a fish ? 



" Hunt. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you ; yet I leave 

 it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians, who have made 

 vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard the question hath 

 been debated among many great clerks, and they seem to differ 

 about it ; yet most agree that her tall is fish, and if her body 

 be fish too, then I may say that a fish will walk upon land (for 

 an Otter does so), sometimes five or six or ten miles in a night. 



"Now, were we to adopt the reference recommended by 

 honest Izaak, the description of this animal would have fallen 

 within the province of my good friend Mr. Yarrell rather than 

 mine; for, says Pennant, 4n the kitchen of the Carthusian 

 Convent near Dijon, we saw one preparing for the dinner of the 

 religious of that rigid order, who, by their rules, are prohibited 

 during their whole lives the eating of flesh.' " 



Extinct species of North American Otter, 



Liutra piscinaria, Leidy. '^ 



lutra ? , Leidy, Contrib. Extinct. Vert, Fn. of the Western Terr. (4to Rep. TJ. S. Geol. 



Surv. vol. 1) 1873, p. 230. 

 Lutra piscinaria, id. ibid. p. 316, pi. xxxi, f. 4 (tibia, i nat. size, from Idaho). 



Based on a tibia submitted to Dr. Leidy's inspection by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, procured by Clarence King on Sinker 

 Creek, Idaho, in association with remains of Equus excelsus and 

 Mastodon mirificus. 



" The tibia pertains to a carnivore, and resembles that of an 

 otter more than that of any other animal with which I have 

 had an opportunity of comparing it. Its differences, excepting 

 size, are trifling. The tubercle for insertion of the quadriceps 

 extensor is less prominent, so as to give the head of the bone 

 proportionally less thickness in relation with its breadth. The 

 ridge for the attachment of the interosseous membrane at the 

 lower part of the bone is more prominent and sharper. The 



