336 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



which must stand, even though, as already intimated, it in- 

 cludes an altogether different animal, Lutra brasillensis ; for 

 the Stellerian name marina was not used by any binomial 

 writer until after Linn-teus had applied lutris. Steller's more 

 obviously appropriate designation of marina was, nevertheless, 

 adopted by Erxleben, Schreber, Desmarest, and other distin- 

 guished naturalists of various countries, and became generally 

 current. In consequence, doubtless, of the very marked char- 

 acters which the species affords, only two or three nominal 

 species have been based upon it. The tirst of these, instituted 

 by Oken, the famous anatomist and naturalist, is, in fact, 

 scarcely a nominal species in the usual acceptation of the 

 term, being merely, like the Mustela hitris of Linnaeus, a re- 

 naming of the well-known animal, without intention of sep- 

 arating from it a second species. Oken called it Piisa orien- 

 talis, in 1816,* in the work above cited, apparently inventing 

 both the generic and specific term, in this application at least. 

 E.-P. Lesson is responsible for another synonym, having, in 

 1827, renamed the species Lutra stelleri, a compliment to the 

 distinguished navigator who gave us the early account, but one 

 which the rules of nomenclature forbid us to adopt, however 

 we might incline to such course. Lesson appears to have fan- 

 cied that the Kamtschatkan Otter, Lutra or Mustela lutris of 

 authors, and Lutra marina of Erxleben, was a true Land Otter, 

 different from Steller's animal, and, in fact, such was partly the 

 case. We have yet to consider a very problematical animal, 

 the Slender Otter of Pennant, which became the Lutra gracilis 

 of Shaw, the Enydris gracilis of Fischer, and is mentioned 

 under Pusa by Oken, said to be from Staaten-Land, Nord- 

 Amerika. It is impossible to determine what this is, owing to 

 the imperfection of the description, but it was probably based 

 upon a Sea Otter ; Pennant himself appears to have given it 

 up, as it does not figure in his later work, "Arctic Zoology ". 

 Oken speaks of " Staaten-Land, hei N'ew-YorJc^^ evidently hav- 

 ing what is now known as Staten Island in view ; but it is 

 safer to presume upon a geographical error here than to refer 

 the animal to Lutra canadensis, which, as is well known, is the 

 only Otter of the Eastern United States, where the Sea Otter 

 certainly does not occur. 

 These specific names are the only ones I have come upon in 



* De Blainville gives the date of the name as 1814, but I have not been 

 able to trace it back of 1816. 



