2038 The Zoologist— Maijcji, 1870. : 



smaller and darker variety fetch from five to seven dollars. I am 

 inclined to think the larger variety, termed the " salt-water" otter, will 

 prove nothing more than very old specimens of L. canadensis, in 

 which the fnr from age, and frequenting the sea-coast, has become 

 coarser and browner. This n)ay be the L. lataxina of F. Cuvier, and 

 the small dark variety the L. mollis of Dr. Gray ; neither of which, I 

 believe, are now separable from the normal L. canadensis. The 

 American otter is a powerfnl animal, measuring four feet in length, 

 and swimming in the water, as well as "sliding" over, or through the 

 snow, with great rapidity. In both operations the tail acts a most 

 prominent part, but this can best be seen when the animal is 

 gliding through the snow: this it does by a succession of bounds, 

 each of which ends in a " slide," often several feet in length, the 

 impetus to which is given by a peculiar lateral curve of the thick tail, 

 which is provided with two powerful muscles — one on each side. The 

 presence of these muscles can be detected, even in a dried skin, by 

 two deep furrows, which are not even obliterated by stretching and 

 nailing the skin to a board. The food of the otter consists perhaj)s 

 mainly of fish, but the animal is by no means choice, and readily 

 catches the young of water-fowl and eats the flesh of other animals; 

 it has also been known to enter a beaver's house and kill the 

 young. 



American Black Bear, Ursus americanus, Pallas. — This ungainly 

 looking animal is still common in Newfoundland, although many are 

 annually shot, trapped and caught in "slips:" the latter is the best 

 plan, as it does not injure the handsome skin. This is probably the 

 most harmless species of bear; and certainly, if we are to believe the 

 oft-repeated tales of the dangers and difficulties incurred in bear- 

 hunting excursions, it is also the most easily destroyed. An ounce of 

 shot, not smaller than No. 6, is sufficient to kill the largest of the 

 species, if fired into the intestines behind the ribs, at a distance not 

 exceeding twenty yards. Ou this part of the coast (Cow Head) where 

 bears are tolerably common, there is scarcely a settler arrived at the 

 age of manhood who has not shot one or more bears, and invariably 

 wilh an ordinary load of shot, such as would be fired at a single duck. 

 There is also very little danger to be apprehended from these animals 

 when wounded. An old English settler, one James Dacre, or Dicker, 

 the champion bear-slayer, wilh whom 1 have pleasantly chatted away 



