LUTEA. 209 



added to by the occurrence of nearly white hairs. The side of the muzzle, the area 

 below the eye and the ear, the side of the neck to the fore limb, and more or less 

 across it, the chin, throat, and under surface of the neck, and the sides and under 

 surface of the trunk and tail, are pale silvery grey. In adolescents, the outsides of the 

 fore limbs are concolorous with the upper parts, and the silvery grey is not so defined 

 on the sides and belly, but it is markedly so on the sides of the face and along the 

 neck. The young animal is much paler brown than the adult, and in the adolescent 

 the colour of the upper part is darkest. The ears are moderately pointed, and in an 

 adult, stufEed male, measm'ing from the muzzle to the vent 27 inches, and the tail 

 15-75, the ear is 0-85 high, by 0-80 broad. 



The differences subsisting between the skulls of this and the other large species 

 of Otter occasionally found in Bengal, suggest the likelihood that L. nair is distin- 

 guished from it by a very different physiognomy, having in all probability less breadth 

 across the frontal or post-orbital region and a longer muzzle. The extent, however, 

 of these dijfferences, if they exist, can only be satisfactorily determined by the 

 observation of the two species in life. 



L. nair is distributed over India from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin and to 

 Ceylon ; an Otter with a skull resembling the skull of L. nair occurring in that 

 island up to 4,500 feet.^ It is prevalent in Bengal and in Assam, but it does not 

 appear to extend into Arracan and Burma, where its place would appear to be taken 

 by another species with a different type of skull. It is largely employed by the 

 fishermen of the Jessore district and of the Sunderbunds to drive fish into their nets, 

 and it is frequently hunted in the neighbourhood of Calcutta by native boys who 

 go in pursuit of it with small packs of pariah dogs, trained also to attack and kill 

 'Felis viverrina and Viverra zihetha. 



The other large species of Otter occurring in Bengal is known to me by only one 

 specimen in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, which Blyth states was obtained in the 

 vicinity of the city, and in the British Museum there is a skull of an Otter from 

 Behar identical with the skull of this specimen. The skeleton, as well as the stuffed 

 specimen, has been preserved. This skull is specifically identical with the skull 

 which I have figured as L. monticola, and is markedly distinct from the skull of the 

 previously described Otter, in which there is a complete absence of the post-orbital 

 swelling which is so characteristic a feature of this skull, and than which it is also 

 much more depressed over the parietal region and with a muzzle of much less 

 depth ; indeed, the two are distinguished from each other by the very leading differ- 

 ences that would suggest themselves were this skull with the post-orbital swelling 

 compared with the skull of the European Otter. Before describing the peripheral 

 characters of this second species of Bengal, Himalayan, and probably Malayan Otter, 

 it may be well to mention that the specimen in question is No. 214 B of Blyth's 

 Catalogue.^ Blyth noticed the difference of colom- by wliich it is distinguished 

 from specimen A of his Catalogue, wliich belongs to the form allied to the European 

 Otter, but the skuU of which Blyth had not removed for examination. His explana- 



' Kelaart. Prod. Faun. Zeylan. 1851, p. 35. - L. c, p. 72. 



c2 



