ALLEN: mammalia: mustelid^. 149 



Cap Horn, VI, Mamm., 1890, 14, description of animal and distribu- 

 tion. — Dabbene, An. Mus. nac. de Buenos Aires (3), I, 1902, 349, 

 distribution. 

 Littya califoritica Gray, Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., I, Nov., 1837, 

 580; List Mamm. Br. Mus., 1843, 7i- Locality, "California," prob- 

 ably = Patagonia [cf. Thomas, P. Z. S., 1889, p. 198). 

 Lufya peruviensis Gervais, Voy. la Bonite, Zool., I, 1841, 15, Atlas, pi. 



iii, figs. 4-6, skull. "San Lorenzo du Pirou." 

 Lutya byachydactyla Wagner, Suppl. Schreber's Saug., H, 1842, 261, 

 footnote. Provisional name for a specimen "aus West-Amerika." 

 The above citations refer to the small otter common off the coast of 

 Chili and southward to the Straits of Magellan and the Tierra del Fuego 

 Archipelago. During the voyage of the Beagle Darwin met with it in 

 abundance and has left us the best account we have of its habits. He 

 says : 



"These animals are exceedingly common amongst the innumerable 

 channels and bays, which form the Chonos Archipelago. They may gen- 

 erally be seen quietly swimming, with their heads just out of water, 

 amidst the great entangled beds of kelp, which abound on this coast. 

 They burrow in the ground, within the forest, just above the rocky shore, 

 and I was told, that they sometimes roam about the woods. This otter 

 does not, by any means, live exclusively on fish. One was shot whilst 

 running to its hole with a large volute-shell in its mouth; another (I 

 believe the same species) was seen in Tierra del Fuego devouring a 

 cuttle fish. But in the Chonos Archipelago, perhaps the chief food of 

 this animal, as well as of the immense herds of great seals, and flocks 

 of terns and cormorants, is a red colored crab (belonging to the family 

 Macrouri) of the size of a prawn, which swims near the surface in such 

 dense bodies, that the water appears of a red color. This specimen 

 weighed nine pounds and a half" (Darwin, Zool. Voy. Beagle, Mamm., 

 p. 24.) 



Milne-Edwards (/. c, pp. 14, 15) speaks of them as very abundant in the 

 region of Magellan Straits. He states that the officers of the Romanch 

 observed them in Orange Bay, at Grevy Island, Banner Cove, and Staaten 

 Land, and specimens were taken in Sea Gull Bay, north of Wollaston. 

 Their skins are commonly used by the Fuegians for clothing, and a short 

 account is given of their manner of hunting the otters. 



