180 DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW OTTER. [Feb. \4, 



Bourbon, being the same picture as that exhibited by Mr. Teget- 

 meier at a Meeting of the Society on the 10th of April, 1866*. 

 This paper will be printed entire in the Society's 'Transactions.' 



The following papers were read : — 



1, Notice oH Lutronectes whiteleyi, aii Otter from Japau. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., &c. 



Mr. Henry Whiteley, junior, has brought with him from Hako- 

 dadi, in Japan, two specimens of a young Otter and their skulls. 

 They appear distinct from the other Otters that are in the British 

 Museum and from all the species I have described in my "Mono- 

 graph oi Mustelidoi," published in the 'Proceedings of the Society' 

 for 1865. They seem to belong to a peculiar group, which may be 

 called 



LUTRONECTES. 



The muzzle bald, oblong transverse, with a straight upper and 

 lower edge ; the upper edge of the nostril bald. Ears oblong, hairy. 

 Feet rather large ; toes strong, webbed, covered with hair above, 

 and bald beneath ; toes and palm-pads well developed, those of the 

 palm separated from the toes by a broad bald space ; claws strong, 

 acute. Tail conical, covered with hair. Skull elongate ; orbit very 

 obscurely defined behind ; the flesh- tooth with a large internal lobe 

 about two-thirds of the length of the outer edge. 



The toes in this genus are strong, thick, and well webbed, rather 

 laiger than in the typical Otters. 



The skulls are not quite the normal skulls of the genus Lutra, as 

 they have scarcely an indication of any tubercle defining the upper 

 hinder portion of the orbit, and only a very obscure angle on the 

 front of the zygomatic process, defining, or rather separating the 

 lower hinder part of the orbit from the mastoid cavity. 



In this respect the skulls are nearly intermediate in form between 

 the skulls of Hydroyale and Bcwangia : they have the hinder edge 

 of the orbit above and below rather more defined than in Hydro- 

 yale, and yet less so than in Baranyia, where the protuberances that 

 define the orbit behind are much smaller than in Hydroyale. 



The genus differs from Hydroyale in the skin between the pads 

 being bald as in the true Otters {Lutra). It agrees with Hydroyale 

 and Lutra in the muzzle being entirely bald and square between 

 the nostrils ; while in Baranyia the muzzle is entirely covered with 

 hair. 



The nose of the skull is short ; the nasal aperture very oblique, 

 edged on each side by the narrow intermaxillaries, which are conti- 

 nued up and separate the front half of the nasal from the maxillae ; 

 the infraorbital foramen is very large ; the nasal extends back as far 

 as the hinder edge of the maxilla on its sides. 



* See P. Z. S. 18(iG, p. 201. 



