9 
NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERS, OTTERS AND FISHERS. 431 
not prove to be the same as the so-called Lutra paranensis Rengg. which he assumed 
might occur throughout the whole Pacific coast regions of America. The close relation- 
ship of our Pacific coast otters to hudsonica will effectually remove them from any com- 
plication with paranensis, but as regards aterrima we must devote sufficient space to show 
the impossibility of referring the Alaskan land otter to that animal, as Trouessart. has 
lately done.* 
A eareful study of Pallas’ original description, together with the fact that no later 
author or explorer has been able to explain or rediscover the animal, convinces me that 
it is either unidentifiable or will prove not to belong to the Lutrine but to the Musteline. 
Pallas states it to be intermediate in size between the European otter and the European 
mink. He states the length of the skin to be 19 inches, 3 lines, and of the tail 5 inches 
with a brush of 12 inches! The color of the animal is said to be very black and shin- 
ing, except the sides of the head between the eyes and ears, which change from black to 
“subrufescent.” The absurdity of applying such a description to the animal which I 
have named pacifica, or, indeed, to any member of the genus Lutra, is certainly evident. 
So far as any animal now known to zodlogists is concerned, the Viverra aterrima of Pallas 
should be consigned to oblivion. 
Another name which has given trouble to those who had to deal with the Pacific 
coast otter is the Lutra californica of Gray. Fortunately, Mr. Thomas has effectually 
exposed the history and at the same time the inapplicability of that name to a North 
American animal of the hudsonica type. He has shown in his paper in the Proceedings 
of the Zoological Society (1. c., p. 198) that Gray’s type of californica did not come from 
California, but most likely from Patagonia, in which case he makes it a synonym of 
Lutra felina Molina. 
Specimens Examined.—Washington, near Tacoma, 3 skulls ; Lake Kichelos, 1 skin 
with skull, 1 skull; Oregon, 1 skull; British Columbia, Sumas, 1 skull; Alaska 
(coast?), 3 skulls; Kodiak Island, 2 skulls; Mission, 1 skull; Queraquinat} Island, 1 
skull. 
Sonoran Orrer. Lutra hudsonica sonora, subsp. noy. 
LIutra canadensis Mearns, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 111, 1891, pp. 253-256. 
Type Locality.—Montezuma Well, Beaver creek, Yavapai county, Arizona. Type, 
ad. 9, No. 3212 in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History. Col- 
lected December 26, 1886, by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns. 
* Catalogus Mammalium, 1. ¢. 
+ It is conjectured that this skull came from the North Pacific. It has Capt. T. J. Turner’s name on it. I cannot 
find an island of this name on the maps. 
A. P. S.—VOL. XIX. 3. 
