206 CAENIVOEA. 



The following are the characters of this species which I figure (Plates X and 

 XII, figs. 4 to 6) from the fine, adult, male example in the India Museum, 

 London. The upper surface of the type of L. sumatrana, Gray, is dark rich hrown, 

 darkest on the head, passing into a paler, but slightly more rufous brown on the 

 ventral aspect. The area below the nose, the upper lip, the angle of the mouth, and 

 the chin backwards along the throat, until on a line below the ears, are yellowish- 

 white. The ears are smaU, broad antero-posteriorly, low, rounded, and with an 

 obscure^ apical point. The colour of the moustachial and other hairs generally, 

 corresponds to the colour of the region in which they are situated, but occasionally 

 white bristles are met with. The upper surface of the webs is clad with hair, and 

 the palms and soles are sprinkled with hairs. The claws are of moderate size 

 larger on the fore than on the hind limbs. The tail is rather narrow and pointed 

 in the type, and the body to the vent measures 21 inches, and the tail 10 inches. 

 The nose is completely covered with hair, except on the centre, where it has been 

 sHghtly abraded. The specimen of this Otter in the India Museum, London, 

 measures from the muzzle to the vent 29*50 inches, the tail being 19 inches long. 

 The fur is short, glossy, and adpressed, and the colour is a rich, rather dark, reddish 

 brown, darkest on the head. The upper lip, chin, and anterior part of the throat 

 are white, the white in the middle line being encroached on by the brown of the 

 chest. The cheeks and the sides of the neck are pale brown. The under parts are 

 slightly paler brown than the sides. The tail is narrow and much tapered, and very 

 dark brown in its latter half. The ears are small, and the nose is haired, but 

 partially abraded. The claws are strongly developed. The specimen is from 

 Malacca, and differs in no respect from Gray's type of Barangia just described. 

 The skull (Plate X, figs. 4 to 6) is allied to the skull I have figured as L. monticola 

 in its post-orbital swelling, but in its other characters it is afiined to L. nair. 



The Otter of India first separated by P. Cuvier as distinct from the European 

 species under the name of L. nair, was described from a specimen procured at 

 Pondicherry by M. Leschenault. 



In 1837^ Dr. Gray indicated a strong-clawed and naked-nosed Otter from India 

 as L. indica. He at first erroneously mentioned Bombay as the locality from whence 

 it had been obtained, whereas the specimens had been procured by Sir "Walter Elliot 

 in the Madras Presidency, and constituted the Lutra nair of that naturalist's 

 Catalogue of the Mammals of the Southern Mahratta Country,^ and were therefore, in 

 reality, from the same zoological province in which L. nair had been originally found. 

 On the same occasion* Dr. Gray indicated a very young Otter from China under the 

 name of L. chinensis. Hodgson, writing in 1839,^ held that no less than seven species 

 of Otter were found in Nepal, five of which he considered differed from the Z. nair, 

 P. Cuv., and X. indica, Gray, and four of them he regarded as new ; and in 1839 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1865, p. 123. 



2 Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. Oct. 1837, vol. i. new ser., p. 580. 



3 Madras, Journ. Lit. and Sc. vol. x. 1839, p. 100. 

 * L. c, p. 580. 



" Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. viii. 1839, p. 319 : et Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. 1840, p. 28. 



