1894.] MAMMALS OF trRUGUAT. 301 



other. I asked my friend why he did not write to the ' Field ' 

 about it ; to which he repUed, " Because I didn't want to be con- 

 sidered a bigger liar than common." For my part I can very 

 well believe in the truth of the incident from what happened to 

 me. I had shot with my little collecting-gun, and only wounded, 

 a Cormorant (Phalacrororax hrosilieims), a bird measuring nearly 

 30 inches in total length, which had been sitting on a dead branch 

 in the small river along which I was walking. The wounded bird 

 flapped away down the laguna, which curved rather sharply and 

 was clothed slightly with sarandi bushes on the banks. I there- 

 fore lost sight of the bird for a minute, and when I came in sight 

 of it again I saw a great commotion going on in the water. 

 Hurrying up I saw the smooth sleek head of an Otter, which had 

 the Cormorant (still flapping its wings) in its mouth, j^s I ran 

 up the Otter dived out of sight with the bird, and although I 

 waited a long time I saw neither again. The whole thing happened 

 rather quickly, and I was so astonished that I never thought of 

 trying a shot with my pistol, if, indeed, I should have had time to 

 do so. I certainly expected the Otter to drop my bird when 1 

 appeared on the scene, as I was then ignorant of the extent of 

 "cheek" possessed by the South-American Otter, 



Just as they miscall the Coypu " Nutria," \\ hich means an otter, 

 so in the camp they miscall the Otter " Lobo," which means 

 sometimes a wolf, but on the South-American coast a seal or sea- 

 lion, " Lobo de Mar " (Ofaria) ; e. g. the Isla de los Lobos 

 near Maldonado, Uruguay, where these animals (perhaps Otaria 

 jubata) congregate. 



White-chested Otter (Lutra hrasiUensis). 



I only once caught a glimpse of the " Lobo de pecho bianco." 

 While staying at an estancia on the north bank of the Rio 

 Negro, several of us one blazing morning had ridden up on to a 

 little cerro (one portion of which was whitened with the bones of 

 a flock of sheep cut off here by a flood a few years before) which 

 commanded a view of a fine bending reach of this beautiful river. 

 We looked right down upon the varied greens of the monte 

 bordering the river, and just in front of us upon a rapid, the 

 sound of which came to us in waves borne by the hot breeze. 

 A Black Cormorant was flapping heavily up stream, and at 

 the head of the rapid an Otter showed itself occasionally ; the 

 glance of the sun on his white chest showed that we were looking 

 at one of those Otters, the fierceness of which is always alluded to 

 by anyone who knows their habits at all. One man, very fond of 

 swimming, told me he should be afraid to bathe in a laguna which 

 he knew to be inhabited by White-throated Otters with young. 

 Another friend told me how he and his companion were annoyed 

 by Otters taking the fish from their set lines at night in the Eio 

 Negro. 



l3r. Burmeister mentions this species being taken by chance on 

 the Eio Uruguay on the Entre-Eios coast. 



