1 62 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



earlier British writers were enabled to ascribe to their otters those burrowing 

 feats which modem authors have been at such pains to contradict, not on 

 their own experience, but by pure analogical reasoning. I am persuaded 

 that this Pensaukin habitation is not unique in the history of our New Jersey 

 otters, in proof of which it may be stated that I received from the editor of 

 'The Friend,' a few days after the examination of this burrow, the announce- 

 ment of another on the banks of Rancocas Creek, near Masonville. This was 

 discovered by a hunter, who, while traversing the wooded bank of the creek, 

 saw, to his consternation, a large pair of eyes staring from the ground. These 

 were surmounted by a pair of horns, giving the object a most Satanic appear- 

 ance They were found to belong to a cow, which had unwittingly caved into 

 the dormitory of an otter, and was meekly awaiting the fate which her own 

 exertions had so nearly sealed." 



Description of species. Because of its peculiar shaped, long, flattened body 

 and tail and the very short legs, giving it a most salamander-like appearance, 

 the otter is recognizable to almost every one. It has sometimes been mis- 

 taken for the beaver while in the water, but its supple, eel-like movements, 

 long pointed tail and flattened head should quickly undeceive the careful ob- 

 server. The northern or Canadian otter is distinguished from the race found 

 in southern N. J. and the Carolinas by its darker hue, being a dark seal brown 

 above ; lower head and neck light Isabella color ; remainder of lower parts 

 nearly as dark brown as the back. In southern N. J. specimens the upper 

 colors are vandyke brown tipped on upper head, neck and shoulders with 

 wood brown ; below, broccoli brown, the pale colors of lower head and neck 

 sometimes faded to grayish buff. The webs of the feet in canadensis are 

 densely hairy ; in lataxina nearly naked. 



Measurements (canadensis) : Total length, noo mm. (43^ in.) ; tail 

 vertebrae, 420 (16^); hind foot, 120 (4^.) ; (lataxina) about the same 

 sized body with larger hind foot. High upland specimens in any region are 

 smaller than those from maritime marshes of the same latitude. 



Southeastern Otter. Lutra canadensis lataxina (F. Cuvier). 



1823. Lutra lataxina F. Cuvier, Dictionaire des Scien. Naturelles, vol. 27, 

 p. 242. 



1898. Lutra canadensis lataxina Allen, Bulletin Amer. Museum Nat. His- 

 tory, N. York, vol. 10, p. 460. 



Type locality. South Carolina. 



Faunal distribution. Upper and lower austral zones ; southern Connecti- 

 cut to Georgia, west to Texas and Great Plains. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. Lowlands of both states ; most typical in 

 lower Delaware Valley and southeastern N. J. 



