1889.] DIFFERENT SPECIES OF OTTER. 199 



to vary so much in these Otters that at present I feel quite unequal 

 to a decision as to whether there are one, two, three, or four Neotro- 

 pical species in addition to those alreadj' mentioned. Dr. A. Nehring, 

 in a recent paper ', has boldly tried to settle the qnestion by lumping 

 all these flat-headed, medium-sized Brazilian Otters under one heading, 

 to which he applies the name of L. latifrons. 



To this I am unable to agree, as some of the Guianan specimens 

 before me appear to be certainly specifically distinct from the South- 

 Brazilian and from the Central- American specimens, but what names 

 will have eventually to be applied to the different forms it is at pre- 

 sent impossible to say. Lutra paranensis, Rengg. (1830), L. platen- 

 sis, Waterh. (1839)," and L. solitaria, Wagn. "(1842), appear all to 

 refer to the same animal ; while for Guianan specimens Lutra 

 enhydris and Z. insularis, F. Cuv. (1823), will have to be reckoned 

 with. 



Otters of the naked-nosed flat-headed type, which we may pro- 

 visionally call Z. paranensis, occur in the Straits of Magellan, where 

 one was obtained by Dr. Coppinger, in La Plata (Darwin), Paraguay 

 (Rengger), Rio Grande do Sul (Hensei, Ihering), Sao Paulo (Nat- 

 terer), and in Central America (Salvin, Sumichrast, and others). 

 There is also in the Museum a young Otter apparently of this form, 

 which was said to have come from Mexico ; but its determination is 

 rather doubtful, although it is certainly distinct from L. canadensis. 

 Still further northwards there seems a possibility that this form 

 occurs in Alaska' and on the Mackenzie River ^ ; and should this be 

 the case, Pallas's " Viverra aterrima " (Schrenck's Lutra aterrima), 

 from the far North-east of Siberia, may also prove to be the present 

 widely-scattered species. 



Considering therefore the difficulties of the case, I propose to 

 postpone the consideration of these forms of Otter to a future 

 occasion, and hope that in the meanwhile collectors will help 

 us by obtaining additional material, and also that other authors 

 will contribute their quotas towards the attainment of a satisfactory 

 solution of the question. 



To sportsmen and naturalists living abroad it may be pointed out 



' SB. Nat. Freund. Berl. 1887, p. 2.3. The new name is given on the ground 

 that none of the half-dozen older names were given in the broader sense covered 

 by Dr. ]S'ehring's name, a plea that no respecter of nomenclature-rules could admit 

 for one moment. To the few zoologists who could suppose such a proceeding 

 admissible it may be pointed out that practically evuri/ species is originally 

 described and named on one form only from a single locality, and that it is 

 only afterwards that its variability and geographical range are properly made 

 out. Probably Prof. Nehring would protest were some one to jSnd a " Vtenomys 

 ininutus" in Chili, and were to re-name it on the ground that the describerhad 

 not included the Chilian form ; and yet this is only what Dr. Nehring has himself 

 done in trying to supersede Lutra paranensis, Eengg., L. platensis, Waterh., 

 L. solitaria, Wagn., and the other names previously given to members of this 

 group of Otters. 



- Cf. Coues, Fur-bearing Animals, p. .301 (1877). 



^ A new-born animal, apparently an Otter, collected by Mr. B. E.. Ross at 

 this locality, and now in the British Museum, is certainly not L. cajimlensis, 

 and may be tliis species. 



14* 



