204 CARNIVOEA. 



Horsfield, in liis Zoological researches in Java, described the small-clawed Otter 

 of that island as Lutra leptonyx, erroneously regarding it as the Simung of Raffles — 

 an error which he afterwards rectified in his Catalogue of Mammalia. 



In 1823, P. Cuvier described L. nair,^ a species which I shall have occasion to 

 refer to more particularly hereafter, and, at the same time, drew attention to and 

 named a yormg Otter L. harang, received from Java from M. Diard, who was F. 

 Cuvier's authority for the Javanese native name of the species. 



I have examined this latter type, which does not prove to be an Aonyx, as has 

 been generally supposed, but a true Lutra with a naked nose and well-developed 

 claws, as in L. nair, the common Otter of India. The fur, as in young Otters, is 

 long and loose, and E. Cuvier, who seems to have examined the skuU, states that the 

 specimen was immature, and that the great size of its cranium led him to believe 

 that the adult animal attained to the size of the Sinning, and that it was probably the 

 young of that animal and not the young of L. nair. The type of L. harang in its 

 peripheral characters resembles the young of L. nair. I was imable to find 

 the skull of this specimen in the Paris Museum, although in my search I was kindly 

 assisted by M. Paul Gervais, unless a skuU which now stands in the Catalogue 

 under the name of L. perspicillata, Is. Geoff. St.-HiL, is it — a supposition which seems 

 probable from the circumstance that on the skull is written L. harang, under which 

 name M. Paul Gervais included it in his manuscript Catalogue. This skull, considering 

 its youth, is of such dimensions that the adult animal must attain to a considerable 

 size, and might be, as Prederick Cuvier has suggested, the yoimg of the Simimg. But, 

 as I have already observed, the skull of the type of L. simung has been lost if it was 

 ever deposited in the India Museum. The type of L. harang, however, conclusively 

 proves that it is neither an Aonyx nor an Otter resembling the hairy -nosed species 

 of Malacca which Cantor considered to be L. harang, Cuvier, and which Gray 

 elevated to generic rank under the name of Barangia. 



Horsfield,^ ia his Catalogue of Mammalia, does not indicate to which of the species 

 therein described the L. barang of P. Cuvier is referable, but, as already mentioned, 

 he corrects his original error regarding his Simung of Raffles as the equivalent 

 of liis Lutra {Aonyx) leptonyx, but erred in considering the L. barang of Cantor 

 as a synonym of that species, as I have ascertained by a personal inspection of 

 Cantor's specimens. Pischer,^ in Ms synoj)sis, perpetuated Horsfleld's first error in 

 assigning the Simung of Raffles as a synonym to L. (A.) leptonyx, with which it 

 has no affinity, while he was apparently correct in considering L. perspicillata. 

 Is. Geoff. St.-HUaire, as identical with L. leptonyx, under which species Horsfield 

 makes no reference to L. perspicillata, although it appears to be identical with the 

 short-clawed Otter of Java. 



L. perspicillata was described by Is. Geoff. St.-Hilau*e in 1826* under the im- 

 pression that he was dealing with the Simung. Having examined the type of this 

 supposed species, I am in a position to state that it is in all probability the young of 



• Diet. So. Nat. vol. xxvii. 1823, p. 247. ^ gy„_ Mamm. 1829, p. 227. 



3 Cat. Mamm. E. Ind. Co. Mus. 1851, p. 117. •* Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. vol. ix. 1826, p. 519, 



