LUTRA LEPTONYX. 



Simung, of the Inhabitants of Sumatra. Sir T. S. Raffles' s Cat. of a Zool. Col. Tr. 



Linn. Soc. XIII. p. 254. 

 Giyze Otter, Verh. van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, Deel. II. p. 457. 



As the appearance which the Javanese Otter presents on a superficial view, 

 may occasion the remark, that its separation fi-om the common Otter of northern 

 climates is a needless augmentation of the Systematic Catalogue, I have, in the 

 following description, entered into more details than the nature of the subject would 

 otherwise require. There is perhaps no genvis among quadrupeds, in which the 

 discrimination of the species requires a greater nicety of comparison. The Common 

 Otter, the Javanese Otter, and the American Otter, (including both the Canadian 

 and Brazilian Otter of authors), are so nearly alike in external appearance, that the 

 specific character drawn by Linnaeus for the Mustela Lutra, applies to them all. 

 But as research is extended, and as new subjects are added to our Collections, a 

 greater amplitude is required, both in the specific character and in the descriptions, 

 in order to afford means to the naturalist to discriminate those species, which, 

 fi-om an agreement in several external characters, are liable to be confounded. 



When I first observed the Lutra leptonyx, I considered it as specifically the same 

 as the Common Otter of Europe and Asia. My opinion was formed only from its 

 general external appearance ; and I was confirmed in it by the observation, that the 

 Javanese Fauna contains various subjects which are hkewise found in Europe. Of 

 these I may enumerate the Golden Plover — Charadrius pluvialis; the Kentish Plover 

 — Charadrius Cantianus ; and the Common Snipe — Scolopax Gallinago. Even in 

 the White Owl, the Strix flammea of Linnaeus, as existing in Java and Great 

 Britain, no clear distinction can be pointed out ; and several other subjects have been 

 enumerated in the Systematic Catalogue of Birds from Java. In the vegetable 

 kingdom a similar fact has been observed ; and Botanists are acquainted with several 

 plants, which preserve the same character in the most distant countries. But a more 

 accurate inquiry than I was able to make in Java, and a careful comparison of 

 specimens of the different species of the genus, have shewn to me that this remark 

 does not apply to the Javanese and to the Common Otter. The characters which dis- 

 tinguish the American Otter, are detailed with great precision by Joseph Sabine, Esq., 

 in the comprehensive account of the Quadrupeds and Birds, of which specimens 

 were collected during Captain Franklin's jovu-ney to the shores of the Polar Sea, 

 which has contributed greatly to the illustration of the Zoology of Arctic America. 



