NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERS, OTTERS AND FISHERS. 427 
Brunswick, Restigouche river, 1 skin; Nova Scotia, Annapolis, 1 skin with skull; 
Maine, Upton, 1 skin with skull; Bucksport, 1 skull; Massachusetts, Kingston, 1 skin 
with skull; Westford, 1 skull; Canton, 1 skull; Missouri, 1 skull; British Columbia, 
Vernon, 1 skull; Alaska, Tanana river, 1 skull. 
CarouintaANn Orter. Lutra hudsonica lataxina (F. Cuvier). 
Plate XXIV; Fig. 4. 
Lutra lataxina F. Cuvier, Dict. des Sci. Nat., 1823, p. 242. 
Type Locality.—South Carolina. 
Geographic Distribution.—Carolinian faunal region, intergrading through the Tran- 
sition region northward with hudsonica and southward through the Austrariparian into 
vaga of southern Florida. 
Color.—Much lighter than hudsonica. Above (from a specimen taken at Liberty 
Hill, Conn., No. 4252, ad. 3, Nov. 19, 1895, collection of E. A. and O. Bangs*), dark 
vandyke brown, tipped on upper head, neck and shoulders with wood brown, darkening 
posteriorly. Upper feet and limbs dark bistre. Below, from lower breast to end of tail, 
between Prout’s brown and broccoli brown. Head, neck and breast, including ears, 
below a line connecting nose, upper eyelid, upper ear and upper base of fore leg, grayish 
wood brown, lightest on head, darkening posteriorly to color (é. c.) of breast. The ayer- 
age Carolinian winter specimens from Maryland southward are somewhat lighter and 
some are Prout’s brown above, the wood brown of lower head and neck becoming a pale 
grayish buff. 
Anatomical Characters.—Size, smallest of the hudsonica subspecies. Inferior webs 
of feet and interspace between callosities of manus, sparsely haired. Hind foot with 
claw about 120 mm. Total length rarely exceeding 1100 mm. Skull relatively small, 
with very large teeth, and weak postorbital processes. In other respects like the hud- 
sonica type. 
Measurements.—See tables. 
Remarks.—The relations of this subspecies to northern Audsonica on the one hand 
and to the southern vaga on the other are rather peculiar. It is without question a 
nearer ally to hudsonica than vaga in the territory between Connecticut and South Caro- 
lina, but, as Mr. Bangs has implied in his remarks on vaga, there is a tendency in the 
Georgia (and we may infer in the South Carolina) otter to the large size and peculiar 
* This specimen comes from the northern edge of the Carolinian region. No equally good skins from more southerao 
localities being available, it is used as typical of the Carolinian race. It corresponds closely to two fine 1897-8 winter 
pelts of Maryland otters, examined through the courtesy of Mr. 8. E. Shoyer, of Philadelphia. 
