344 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



Cbernobour Islets, to the eastward about thirty miles, which 

 are similar to it. The sea-otter rarely lauds upou the main 

 islaud, but it is fouud just out of water on the reef-rocks and 

 islets above meutioned, in certain seasons, and at a little dis- 

 tance at sea during calm and pleasant weather. The adult 

 sea-otter is an animal that will measure from three and a half 

 to four feet at most, from nose to tip of tail, which is short and 

 stumpy. The general contour of the body is closely like that 

 of the beaver, with the skin lying in loose folds, so that when 

 taken hold of in lifting the body out from the water, it is as 

 slack and draws up like the hide on the nape of a young dog. 

 This skin, which is taken from the body with but one cut made 

 in it at the posteriors, is turned inside out, and air-dried, and 

 stretched, so that it then gives the erroneous impression of an 

 animal at least six feet in length, with girth and shape of a 

 weasel or mink. There is no sexual dissimilarity in color or 

 size, and both manifest the same intense shyness and aversion 

 to man, coupled with the greatest solicitude for their young, 

 which they bring into existence at all seasons of the year, for 

 the natives get young pups every month in the year. As the 

 natives have never caught the mothers bringing forth their off- 

 spring on the rocks, they are disposed to believe that the birth 

 takes place on kelp- beds, in pleasant or not over-rough weather. 

 The female has a single pup, born about fifteen inches in length, 

 and provided during the first month or two with, a coat of coarse, 

 brownish, grizzled fur, head and nape grizzled, grayish, rufous 

 white, with the roots of the hair growing darker toward the 

 skin. The feet, as in the adult, are very short, webbed, with 

 nails like a dog, fore-paws exceedingly feeble and small, all 

 covered with a short, fine, dark, bister- brown hair or fur. From 

 this poor condition of fur they improve as they grow older, 

 shading darker, finer, thicker, and softer, and by the time they 

 are two years of age they are ' prime,' though the animal is 

 not full-grown until its fourth or fifth year. The white nose 

 and mustache of the pup are not changed in the adult. The 

 whiskers are white, short, and fine. The female has two teats, 

 resembling those of a cat, placed between the hind limbs on 

 the abdomen, and no signs of more ; the pup sucks a year at 

 least, and longer if its mother has no other; the mother 

 lies upon her back in the water or upon the rocks, as the case 

 may be, and when she is surprised, she protects her young by 

 clasping it in her fore-paws and turning her back to the danger 



