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SEA-OTTER. 



CHAPTER III 

 Mammals and Birds of the North Pacific 



Sea-Otter. 



Although the air-breathers of the North Pacific include a consider- 

 able number of species identical with those of the North Atlantic, 

 yet there are a certain number of types quite unknown in the latter area. 

 Among these is the sea-otter (Latax lutris), whose long flipper-like hind-feet are 

 quite unlike those of ordinary otters, and more nearly resemble those of the eared 

 seals. As these are doubled under when on land, the progress of the animal is 

 not a walk but a succession of short leaps. The sea-otter also differs from ordinary 

 otters in its dentition, especially in the form of the hinder cheek-teeth, which are 

 surmounted by lobulated blunt tubercles well adapted for crushing the shell-fish 

 and sea-urchins which constitute its principal food. On the American coast 

 sea-otters range as far south as Oregon, but are most common round Alaska 

 and near Vancouver Island ; on the Asiatic side they frequent the shores of 

 Kamchatka, where, however, they are more rare than in Alaska. Formerly the 

 Pribiloff Islands, in Bering Sea, were inhabited by sea-otters, more than five thousand 

 being killed on these islands soon after their discovery. From these and many 



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