CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 319 



its habits and food it resembles the European species. In the winter season it frequents rapids 

 and falls for the advantage of open water, and when its usual haunts are frozen over it will travel 

 to a great distance through the snow in search of a rapid that has resisted the frost. When 

 seen and pursued by the hunters, as it is on these journeys, it throws itself forward on its belly, 

 and slides through the snow for several yards, leaving a deep furrow behind it. This movement 

 is repeated with so much rapidity, that even a swift runner on snow-shoes has much trouble in 

 overtaking it. It also doubles on its track with much cunning, and dives under the snow to elude 

 its pursuers. When closely pressed it will turn and defend itself obstinately. When Sir John 

 Richardson's party were at Great Bear Lake, in the spring of 1826, these otters robbed their nets 

 which had been set under the ice a few yards from a piece of open water. They generally car- 

 ried off the heads of the fish, leaving the bodies sticking in the net. The female brings forth one 

 litter in the year, consisting of two or three. 



This otter is found throughout Canada and the United States, even as far south as Brazil, but 

 it is most abundant on the Mackenzie and other rivers near to the Arctic Sea. There appears to 

 be no difference between the skins obtained on the shores of the Pacific and those in the neigh- 

 borhood of Hudson's Bay. The fur is valuable, and is a considerable article of commerce; it va- 

 ries with the season. In summer the hair is very short, and then it is almost black; in winter it 

 becomes a rich reddish-brown, with the exception of the grayish spot under the chin. The fur is 

 nearly as fine as beaver-wool, but not so long, and consequently is not so well adapted for felt. 

 The nest in which these animals spend a good portion of the day, is sometimes made in a bank 

 of earth, and sometimes in the trunk of a fallen tree ; it is lined with sticks, grasses, and leaves, 

 and is of large size, and well protected from the rains, being, at the same time, beyond the reach 

 of rising floods. They have a habit of sliding off wet sloping banks into the water, which is 

 taken advantage of by the trappers to catch them, by placing sunken steel-traps in places where 

 these animals are thus accustomed to amuse themselves. Godman tells us that they are fond of 

 sliding down hill, in winter, upon the snow banks, going on their bellies, feet first, in the manner 

 of a parcel of school-boys "coasting," as it is called in New England. They are said to enter 

 into the sport with great spirit, and to pursue it with intense eagerness and delight. 



These animals are easily tamed when taken young; they are very playful, and will follow their 

 keeper from place to place; they will become familiar, crouching in the lap like a cat. In con- 

 finement, they eat milk and bread; in a wild state they prefer fish, but sometimes feed on birds 

 and other game. 



Specimens of this kind of otter have been described as distinct species by several authors : in- 

 stances are the L. Brasiliensis of Ray, and the L. Californica, as well as the Lataxina mollis 

 of Gray. It may be remarked, that there is considerable variety in the sizes of these animals and 

 the shades of their color ; the fur of those taken at the north is also uniformly fiuer and closer 

 than those taken at the south. 



The Brazilian Otter, L. Brasiliensis, which we regard as of the same genus as the preceding, 

 is called Lobo de Rio, or River-wolf, by the natives. D'Azara says that it lives in troops, which, 

 sometimes rising to the surface of the water, lift their heads and bark like dogs, with a hoarse 

 voice, in a menacing and snapping manner, without, however, injuring voyagers or swimmers. 

 Each family seems to possess a separate domain. It spends nearly as much time in the water as 

 it does upon land, where it devours the fish which it has taken, and rears its young in holes 

 which it excavates in the banks. The same author was informed by the Payaguas Indians, who 

 sail continually up and down the river, and are better acquainted with this animal than others, 

 that the female brings forth two at a birth, covered with hair, and that many females bring forth 

 and rear their young at the same time, and in the same place, their usual resort throughout the 

 year. The motions of this otter are generally slow, and it drags, as it were, its belly and muzzle 

 along the ground; when it runs it is not at all swift. 



D'Azara further states that a neighbor of his purchased a young whelp, which, at six months 

 old, was thirty-four inches long. It was permitted to run loose about the house, and was fed 

 with fish, flesh, bread, mandioca, and other food, but it preferred fish. It would Avalk into the 

 the street and return, knew the people of the house, came when called by name, and would fol- 



