LUTRA VULGARIS. All| 
indicates the premolar teeth, of which the first in the upper 
jaw, which is absent in the Pole-cat and Weasel, retains 
its characteristic place on the imner side of the canine: the 
sectorial premolar s, has its immer lobe much more developed 
than in Putorius, and the tubercular molar is relatively 
larger. Similar modifications of these teeth distinguish the 
dentition of the lower jaw of the Otter, which agrees in the 
number and kind of teeth with that of the Pole-cat. The 
increased grinding surface relates to the inferior and coarser 
nature of the animal diet of the Otter, the back teeth being 
thus adapted for crushing the bones of the fishes before 
they are swallowed. The fossil Otter of the Cambridge- 
fens, if the specimens may be termed fossil, does not, like 
the Otter of the caves at Lunel-vieil, surpass the existing 
individuals in strength or size: the cranium was, in fact, 
somewhat less than that of the old male Otter with which 
I compared it.* 
A portion of the lower jaw of an Otter, from the Norwich 
crag at Southwold, and the characteristically bent humerus 
from the same formation near Aldborough, which Mr. Lyell 
has proved to be partly of fluviatile origin, carry the date 
of the Lutra vulgaris in England, as far back as the older 
pliocene period. 
I have hitherto met with no fossil remains of the Otter 
in the newer pliocene fresh-water deposits of England, and 
the amphibious habits and cautious concealment of the Otter 
prevent any surprise at the absence of its remains in those 
ossiferous caves which have served as retreats to the larger 
extinct Carnivora, and which have yielded so many valuable 
evidences of the antediluvian inhabitants of Great Britain. 
* M. de Blainville cites this speleean Otter as the Lutra antiqua ; but M. Marcel 
de Serres expressly states, in respect to the most characteristic fossil bone, — 
“ Notre maxillaire se distingue donc uniquement par sa force et ses proportions de 
celui de la Loutre commune.” Mem. du Muséum, tom. xviii. p. 337. 
