444 



SEA OTTER. 



Lutra Marina. L nigra, plantis pilosis, cauda corpore quadruple 



breviore. 

 Black O. with hairy feet, and tail four times shorter than the 



body. 

 Mustela Lutris. M. plantis palmatis pilosis, cauda corpore quad" 



ruplo brcviore. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 66. 

 Lutra marina. Steller nov. comm. Petrop. 2. p. 367. t. 26. 

 Sea Otter. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 83. 

 """" . 



THIS is the largest of the Otters, measuring 

 about three feet from the nose to the tail, and 

 the tail thirteen inches. The colour of this spe- 

 cies is a deep, glossy, brownish-black ; the fur 

 being extremely soft and very fine : on the fore- 

 head is generally a cast of greyish or silver-co- 

 lour: the ears are erect, sharpish, and small: the 

 whiskers long and white: the fore legs thick and 

 furnished with four toes, covered with hair, and 

 webbed : the hind feet resemble those of a Seal ; 

 the toes being connected by a strong granulated 

 membrane, with a skin skirting the outward toe, 

 as in some of the water-fowl: the tail is short, 

 broad, depressed, and pointed at the end. The 

 Sea Otter has been found of the weight of seventy 

 or eighty pounds. It is sometimes seen of a sil- 

 very or hoary tinge. According to Mr. Pen- 

 nant, it is one of the most local animals we are 

 acquainted with, being entirely confined between 

 lat. 44. and 60. north; and between east long-. 



o 



from London, 126. to 150.; inhabiting, in great 

 abundance, Bering's islands, Kamtschatka, the 



