618 Dr. C. T. Forsyth Major on the 



LXIII. — The Otter of Central America. 

 By C. I. Forsyth Major. 



During the preparation of a detailed paper on the skulls of 

 the Otters, the publication of which has been accidentally 

 delayed by my absence from Europe, the species occurring in 

 Central America has proved to need a new name. It may 

 be called Lutra annectens, sp. n. 



The nearest affinities of L. annectens, of which I have 

 examined two skulls from Mexico, two from Guatemala, and 

 one from Panama, are not with L. felina, Mol., as supposed 

 by Tomes, Coues, Alston, and Allen, but with the North- 

 American canadensis, as von Frantzius has supposed, and the 

 South- American middle-sized Otters, as shown by O. Thomas ; 

 these last, in my opinion, must have only one name, viz. 

 L. enhydris, F. Cuv. (emend.). It must be stated at the 

 outset that not all the characters assigned to canadensis as 

 distinctive from enhydris are constant, and neitlier are those 

 of the latter ; there are S])ecimens of canadensis which in the 

 form of the skull and teeth approach enhydris, and vice versa. 



L. annectens agrees with canadensis (1) in having a straight 

 inferior mandibular margin (in one skull from Alaska, iiow- 

 ever, it is curved as in South-American Otters, whilst in one 

 iiom Ilheos, Brazil, it is straight, as usual in canadensis) ; 

 (2) as in canadensis, the premolars in annectens are slenderer, 

 less massive than in enhydris. But they even go beyond 

 the northern form in this respect, as the anterior ones are so 

 small that when the jaws are closed they do not closely inter- 

 lock or touch one another, though they overlap. P, 2 inf. is 

 smaller as compared to p. 1 than even in canadensis, and there 

 is a real diastema between p. 1 and p. 2 inf. 



P. 1 sup. also is less massive in annectens than usual in 

 enhydris, and presents more the triangular form of cana- 

 densis; but here, again, it must be stated that in a skull (d) 

 from Surinam and in two ($) from Brazil this tooth is tri- 

 angular, whilst other South-American skulls trom Cayenne, 

 Desterro, Maldonado, &c. present transitions between the 

 shape of the tooth in the first-named three and tiie massive 

 almost quadrate form in one skull from British Guiana and 

 two from Rio Grande do Sul. 



In the following cranial and dental characters annectens 

 shows agreement with enhydris: — 



1. The upper contour of the skull slopes downwards ante- 

 riorly (in its facial part), whilst it is straight in canadensis. 



2. The bullae ossese are, alike in annectens and enhydris, 

 less flattened than in canadensis. 



