CARNARIA. 103 
that of the Polecat, mingled with a strong smell of garlic— 
nothing is more nauseous. 
It would seem that in South America the species most usu- 
ally encountered has a white tail. The stripes on the back 
sometimes occupy its whole breadth; it is the Viverra mephitis, 
Gm.; Buff. XIII, xxxix, or the Chinche.(1) 
We may make a distinct subgenus of the Mypaus, Fred. Cuv. 
whose teeth, feet, and even colours are similar to those of the 
Skunk, but whose truncated muzzle resembles a Hog’s snout ; 
the tail being reduced to a small pencil. One species only is 
known, the 
M. meliceps, Fred. Cuv., and Horsf. Java. (The Teledu.) 
Black; the nape of the neck, a stripe along the back and the 
tail white ; the dorsal stripe sometimes interrupted in the mid- 
dle ; not surpassed in stench by any of the Skunks. 
Lutra, Storr. 
The Otters have three false molars in each jaw, a strong heel to 
the superior carnivorus, a tuberculus on the inner side of the inferior 
one, and a large tuberculous tooth above that is nearly as long as it 
is broad. The head is compressed, and the tongue demi-asperate. 
They are otherwise distinguished from all the preceding subgenera 
by palmated feet, and a horizontally flattened tail, two eee ars 
which render them aquatic. Their food is fish. ° 
L. vulgaris; Mustela lutra, L.; Buff. VIL, xi. (The Com- 
«mon Otter.) Brown above, whitish round the lips, on the 
cheeks and the whole inferior surface of the body. It is some- 
times found spotted and whitish. rom the rivers of Europe. 
Several Otters differ but little from the above. That of Ca- 
rolina, LZ. lataxina, Fr. Cuy., becomes a little larger, is some- 
times more deeply coloured, and has a brownish tint beneath ; 
very frequently, however, there is no difference even in the 
shades of colour. In Brazil there are others similar in every 
respect to those of Carolina. That of the East Indies the Z. 
nair, Fr. Cuv., (The Pondicherry Otter) appears a little 
smoother, and is somewhat pale about the eye-brows, but it is 
scarcely perceptible. The Indians employ it for fishing, as we 
(1) It is better figured, Hist. des Mammif. of Fr.Cuv. The Chili Skunk, Buff. 
Supp. VII, pl. lvii, appears to be a mere badly Pipearved variety of the same. See 
my Ossemens Foss. LV, 469. 
‘N.B. This is the same animal with the immediately preceding species, and has 
been called the V. conepatl and V. chinche. No two individuals of this species are 
alike, being sometimes even wholly white or the reverse. Am. Ed. 
