198 MR. O. THOMAS ON THE (Apr. 2, 
where its range meets that of the larger Brazilian Otter’. Thence 
northward it is exceedingly common along the coasts of Patagonia 
and Chili, where the complex labyrinths of gulfs and channels are 
highly favourable to its manner of life. It has been found in Peru, 
and in Ecuador it has been recorded from San Lorenzo. In addition, 
it has been stated to occur in Central America, in California, and 
Kamtschatka. The Central-American locality has already been 
disposed of. That of Kamtschatka rests on two skins, now in the 
British Museum, received from the French dealer Verreaux in 1856, 
and certainly belonging to L. felina; their evidence, however, would 
no doubt have long ago been rejected, had it not been partially 
confirmed by Dr. Gray’s description of a “ Z. californica,” afterwards, 
and rightly, attributed to this specirs. The type of L. californica 
was obtained and presented to the Museum by Capt. P. P. King; 
but not only has the locality never been confirmed, a most significant 
fact in so well-known a country, but there is also no mention of 
California in that officer’s account of his surveying-voyage. His 
other specimens all came from Patagonia, and I suspect that 
“ California” was copied by mistake for “ Patagonia,’ a word not 
unlike it in manuscript. My conclusion, therefore, is that in all 
probability the type of “Z. californica” really came from Patagonia ; 
that the locality of Verreaux’s “‘ Kamtschatkan ” specimens is erro- 
neous; that Pallas’s ‘‘Viverra aterrima’’? is not this species, as has 
been suggested; and as a result of these conclusions, that L. felina 
does not really range northwards beyond Ecuador. 
The following is its synonymy :— 
LUTRA FELINA. 
Mustela felina, Mol. Sagg. Storia Nat. Chili, p. 342 (1782). 
Mustela (Lutra) chilensis, Kerr, Linn. An. K. i. p. 172 (1792). 
Lutra felina, Shaw, Gen. Zool. i. pt. ii. p. 448 (1800) (and of Gray 
and other authors referring to Peruvian, Chilian, and Magellan Otters, 
but not of Coues, Alston, and others describing Central-American 
specimens). 
Lutra chilensis, Benn. P. Z.8. 1832, p. 1. 
Lutra californica, Gray, Charlesw. Mag. N. H. i. p. 580 (1837). 
Lutra peruviensis, Gerv. Voy. Bonite, i. p. 15, Atl. pl. in. figs. 
4 & 5 (skull) (1841). 
Lutra brachydactyla, Wagn. Schr. Saug. Supp. ii. p. 261 (1842). 
Nutria felina, Gray, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 128; Cat. Carn. B. M. 
p- 106 (1869). 
Turning now to the smaller Otters of Brazil, larger, indeed, than 
L. felina, but markedly smaller than L. brasiliensis, we are confronted 
with a problem that I am as yet unable to elucidate. The characters 
of the nose-pad and the proportions of the skull and teeth appear 
1 One of the Otter-skins obtained by Dr. Coppinger in the Straits of Ma- 
gellan during the voyage of the ‘ Alert,’ and referred by me to L. felina (P. Z.8. 
1881, p. 3), proves, on an examination of its skull, to be really of the same type 
as “L. paranensis.” The other specimens mentioned are all really L. fedina. 
2 Zoogy. Ross.-Asiat. i. p. 81 (1811). 
