African and S.- American Otters. 393 



General colour rather paler than usual. 

 8kull and teeth large and heavy, apparently quite similar 

 to those of L. pJatensis, though the inner lobe of />* averages 

 rather smaller. 



The type skull (young) has a p'^ measurement of 12"4 mm. 

 An old male skull from Eten gives the following dimen- 

 sions : — Condylo-basal length 118 mm.; zygomatic breadth 

 77-5; mastoid breadth 72 ; interorbital breadth 2-1-8 ; palate 

 length 54. 



Ifah. Peru. Type from Marcapata, Prov. Cuzco. Other 

 specimens from Eten on the N.W. coast (P. 0. Simons). 



This otter is most nearly allied to L, platensis, of which 

 it may hereafter prove to be a subspecies, when specimens 

 from intermediate localities are available for comparison. 



Two other otters have been described from Peru, L. peruvi- 

 ensis, Gervais, and L, montana^ Tschudi. The former was 

 based on a skull picked up on San Lorenzo Island, off Callao, 

 and has long been synonymized with L. cinerea, Molina, the 

 small Chilian otter. That this reference is correct is now 

 proved by tlie examination of a specimen obtained by 

 Mr. Perry Simons on that very island, a specimen which 

 precisely agrees with Gervais's figure and also with speci- 

 mens of L. cinerea from Chili. 



With regard to L. montana, it is difficult to believe that 

 the animal Tschudi described was an otter at all, as of no 

 member of the genus can it be said that " der Unterleib ist 

 schwarzlich," that " die Fiisse sind schwarz/^ or that " die 

 Wollhaare sind gliinzend schwarz.'" Possibly Tschudi heard 

 accounts of the"Lebensweise und geographischeVerbreitung" 

 of this species, and then had palmed off on him as an otter 

 an imperfect skin of some other animal altogether, possibly a 

 Tayra, which he described. 



No specimen is preserved under the name of L. montana 

 in the Museum at Neuchatel, where I have been able to 

 examine the majority of Tschudi's types. 



6. Lutra jnitis, sp. n. 



Nose-pad as in L. incarum, but rather more hairy, the hair 

 above generally connected by a narrow mesial line with that 

 below, though often more or less worn off in old specimens. 

 In the most hairy specimens the band may attain at its 

 narrowest part a breadth of about 2-3 mm., but it is more often 

 about 1 mm. in breadth when not worn down. 



General culour dark. 



Skull smaller and lighter than In any other of the present 



