Nezv Subspecies of Otter from Nebraska 3 



Stihspecific Characters. — Similar to L. c. canadensis Kerr,* of 

 northeastern North America, but sHghtly paler, distinctly larger, 

 with a proportionately shorter hind foot, proportionately smaller 

 skull and less crowded teeth; also similar to L. c. /ato;irwa Cuvier,^ 

 of the central Atlantic coast region, but much larger thruout and 

 with the inferior webs of the feet more densely haired ; also very 

 close to L. c. sonora Rhoads,^ of Arizona, but slightly smaller 

 and darker, with a much shorter hind foot, and with shorter, 

 stouter postorbital processes ; paler, especially beneath, with more 

 densely haired inferior webs, and differing in many cranial char- 

 acters from L. c. vaga Bangs,'^ of Florida and the Gulf Coast 

 region ; larger and differing in important cranial characters from 

 L. c. pacifica Rhoads,^ L. c. periclysomae Elliot,^ and L. c. brevi- 

 pilosus Grinnell ;^'' much larger and with a much stronger and 

 more ridged skull than L. degener Bangs. ^^ 



Color. — Adult in summer pelage : Above dark reddish brown, 

 between seal brown and vandyke brown or burnt umber, becom- 

 ing somewhat paler on the neck because of paler tips to many of 

 the hairs ; under parts paler, the under side of the head below 

 nostrils, eye and ear, and the under side of the neck below a line 

 between the ear and the base of the fore leg, wood brown so 

 heavily overlaid with long, white hairs as to appear whitish, and, 

 under the ears, white ; breast and remainder of under parts 

 Prout's brown, decreasingly overlaid with whitish hairs from 

 breast to belly ; legs and feet above concolorous with upper parts, 

 below paler, the inferior web of the feet densely haired. 



Measurements of Type J^. — " Length 53 inches ; tail 18 inches " 

 (by collector) . Measurements of carefully made-up skin : Length, 

 1270; tail, 488; hind foot, 120; ear, 16.5 (by author). 



The general color of L. c. interior is paler than in typical cana- 



^ Linn. An. Kingd., i, p. 173 (1792). 



^ Diet, des Sci. Nat., p. 242 (1823). 



^ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., iii, pp. 253-256 (1891). 



"^ Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xxviii, p. 224 (1898). 



8 Trans. Amer. Phil. Soe., xix, pp. 429-431 (1898). 



^ Proc. Biol. Soe. Wash., xviii, pp. 80-81 (1905). 



10 Univ. California Pubs. Zoology, xii, pp. 306-309 (1914). 



^^ Proe. Biol. Soe. Wash., xii, p. 35 (li 



