ON THE GENUS LUTRA. 149 



a character would require a number of specimens in proof, ere 

 naturalists could admit it as always existing and permanent, so as 

 to entitle it to generic pre-eminence. It is possible there may 

 result a solution of these difficulties in the determination of two 

 distinct species of otter on the southern portion of the African 

 continent. 



The Lutra Brasiliensis of Ray is the lobo du rio of the 

 Portuguese and Brasilian colonists. This appellation of River 

 Wolf is given to it, we may conclude, from the barking noise it 

 makes, and from its gregarious habits. These otters keep together in 

 bands, but have no resemblance to the wolf. Azara's name is 

 Nutria, and it is a well marked species, smaller than our Canadian 

 otter, of a yellow colour, and destitute of the glandular apparatus 

 round the nostrils; which is the only portion of the nose wanting 

 hair. In our North American otters a large space on the nose 

 is bare. As might be implied from its gregarious habits, the Brasi- 

 lian otter has a social disposition. They fish in company in the 

 rivers of Paraguay and Brazil, and many females rear their young 

 together in one locality. 



Lutra Californica is a species established by Mr. J. E. Gray of 

 the British Museum, on the strength of its differing from the 

 Canadian Otter, in having but little hair on the feet between the 

 pads of the toes, and less on the palms and soles generally. 

 Besides this, the length of the naked portion of the nose is shorter 

 than its breadth, and shews not anteriorly or posteriorly the acute 

 points encroaching upon the upper lip and forehead. These 

 marks, especially the latter, are quite observable in the case of the 

 Canadensis, and probably are the consequences of a difference in 

 the nasal bones. Zoologists therefore have been induced to follow 

 Gray, and adopt the species. Indeed the separation of California 

 from the rest of our continent by the high lands of Mexico, with 

 their characteristic Fauna and Flora, on the east, the sandy de- 

 serts and the Elk and Humboldt mountains, on the north east, 

 and the gigantic southern limbs of the Cascade range, on the 

 north, renders it probable that this otter, is distinct. When 

 a number of the skulls and skeletons of each shall have been 

 collected, a close comparison will decide the matter. 



Eastern North America, which is so highly favored in the posses- 

 sion of magnificent rivers and lakes, filled at times to overflow by 

 a thousand tributary streams and mountain torrents, might well 



