LUTEA. 205 



L. {Aonyx) leptonyx. The claws, however, appear to he rather longer than in the 

 generality of young specimens of this species, hut it must he rememhered that at an 

 early age the claws are more pointed than in the adult. The specimen, moreover, has 

 the characteristic markings of the species in the white on the cheeks and on the sides 

 of the neck and throat, and in the hrown moustachial hand. The tentative opinion 

 which I have formed regarding the nature of L. perspicillata coincides with Dr. 

 Gray's view of the question, hut as there is no properly authenticated skull of the 

 specimen which is quite young, it is extremely difficult and almost impossihle to 

 determine its affinities with accuracy. 



Schinz in his synopsis^ regarded the Barang as a small-clawed Otter, and as the 

 equivalent of the L. harang of Ejaffles and of the L. leptonyx as described hy Wagner;^ 

 but, as I have indicated, the L. harang of Frederick Cuvier from Java is a species 

 with long claws and apparently the young of the Simung, which Schinz correctly 

 states is distinguished by strong claws. 



Before I refer to the Otters that have been described from India proper, the Otter 

 from the Malayan peninsula wliich Cantor^ has indicated must be mentioned. He 

 described it under the name of L. barang, Raffles, but apparently erred in so doing, 

 as E-affles' description of the feet of the Barang would seem to point in the 

 direction of the small Otter figured by Marsden and described by Horsfield and 

 Is. Geoff. St.-Hilau^e respectively as L. leptonyx and L. perspicillata. The Barang 

 of Cantor is a strongly clawed Otter distinguished from all other known Asiatic Otters 

 by its hairy nose, resembling in this particular A. delalandii, Lesson, and Fteronura 

 sandhachii, Gray. It is quite distinct from the L. barang, P. Cuvier, which, as 

 already stated, has a bald nose and agrees with the Simung. Cantor states that in 

 old individuals the hairs become rubbed off, but in an adult specimen presented by 

 him to the India Museum, the hairy character of the nose is weU marked, although 

 at the same time it is not so thickly clothed as in the young. In the type of 

 L. simung in the same Museum, the bare nose shows no indication whatever that 

 it was ever clad, and the rough character of the skin resembles that of the bald-nosed 

 species. As already mentioned, one of the Otters figured by Marsden and referred 

 by him to Mustela lutra appears to be represented in the plate as having a 

 haired nose, and the drawing seems to me to be a good representation of this, the 

 supposed Barang of Cantor, while Marsden' s other figure is a characteristic repre- 

 sentative of L. {A.) leptonyx, which I consider, along with Miiller and Horsfield, to 

 be the Barang of Eaffles. Some of Cantor's specimens of this Otter found their 

 way to the British Museum, and Dr. Gray, apparently without enquiring whether 

 they had been correctly identified by Cantor, adopted the name under which they 

 had been sent, and elevated the species to generic rank under the erroneous name 

 of Barangia, and specific term sumatrana, although the specimens he was dealing 

 with came from Malacca. 



1 Syn. Mamm. vol. ii. 1844, p. 35. 2 Schreb. Saugeth. Suppl. vol. ii. 1841, p. 2(55. 



^ Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1846, vol. xv. p. 195. 



