Or AD? oT Ser 
The Americans round Hud/on’s Bay fhoot or trap them for the fake 
of the fkins, which are fent to Europe. They aifo ufe the fkins for 
pouches, ornamented with bits of horn; and eat the flefh. 
Otters are probably continued along the réfic parts of America, 
weftward;-being found on the meit eaftern, or the greater Fox 
Jfands, which are fuppofed to be pretty near to that continent. 
Leffer Otter, Hit. Quad. N° 22%, 
TTER. With a white chin: rounded ears: top of the head 
in fome hoary, in others tawny: the body covered with fhort 
-tawny hairs, and longer of a dufky color: the feet broad, webbed, and 
covered with hair: the tail dufky, ending ina point. This animal 
is of the fhape of the common Otter, but much fmaller: its length 
being only twenty inches from head to tail; of the tail only four. 
It inhabits the middle provinces of North America, from New Fer- 
Jey to the Carolinas. 1 did not difcover it among the {kins fent by 
Mr. Graham from Hudfon’s Bay ; the animal defcribed as one of this 
fpecies differing from the many I have feen from the more fouthern 
colonies: yet poffibly it may be found in a more northern latitude 
than that which I have given it, if the Foutereaux, an amphibious 
fort of little Polecats mentioned by La Hontan, be the fame *. 
It frequents the banks of rivers, inhabiting hollow trees, or holes 
which it forms near the water t. It has, like the Skunks, when pro- 
voked, a moft exceffively foetid fmell. It lives much upon fifh, frogs, 
and aquatic infects; dives admirably, and will continue longer under 
water than the Mufk-beaver{: yet at times it will defert its watery 
haunts, and make great havoke in the poultry yards, biting off the 
heads of the fowls, and fucking the blood. At times it lurks amidft 
® i, 62. + Kaln, it. 62. } Letter from Mx. Peter Collinfon. 
9 the 
87 
35. Minx. 
DescriPTIoNn 
AMERICA, 
