NOTES ON ADIRONDACK MAMMALS. 333 



rarest and least known of North American animals, and about the only place where 

 specimens can be obtained with any certainty is in the barren grounds of northern 

 Canada and Alaska. The specimens from the extreme northwest have recently been 

 assigned to a new species. This species formerly extended south to Pennsylvania 

 and Colorado, and reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. It probably 

 occurred in the Adirondacks, but was never abundant there. 



Through the north country this animal has an evil reputation for robbing food 

 caches. No matter how deeply buried under stones or logs may be the food supply 

 stored up by the hunters for their return trip, if once found by the wolverine the 

 cache is torn apart and scattered. Things which cannot be eaten are destroyed, 

 and many articles actually are carried off and hidden. 



Trappers have been driven out of a district by the persistence with which this 

 animal followed up and destroyed not only the traps and bait, but marten caught 

 in them. The restoration of the wolverine to the Adirondacks need not be 

 considered, as, aside from its impossibility, the popularity of the animal with campers 

 would be more than doubtful. 



In the twenty-five years from 1853 to 1877, inclusive, the Hudson Bay Company 

 sold in London 32,975 skins of the wolverine. In 1902 and 1903, only 635 and 695 

 skins, respectively, were sold. Most of them came from the Mackenzie basin. 



Otter. 



The largest of the Mustelidae in the Adirondacks is the otter {Lutra canadensis). 

 The American otter is found throughout eastern America north of the Carolinas, 

 and is closely related to the European species. The genus itself is one of the 

 most widely distributed of the Mustelines, extending even into South America, 

 where in the waters of the Amazon is found a giant otter. 



The otter is almost as well adapted to aquatic life as the seals, and in the 

 distantly related sea otter of the North Pacific the resemblance to the seals 

 becomes still more striking. Of course this resemblance does not indicate 

 relationship with the seals, but is merely in response to similar environment, 

 called by zoologists parallelism. Like the seal, the otter is an expert fisher, and 

 by its skill in swimming can capture even the swift trout in shallow streams. 

 It is also much given to feeding on ducks, which it catches by swimming under 

 water and seizing them by the legs. 



The otter is scarcely ever at rest, and in the early days of the Adirondacks it 

 was not an uncommon sight to see one of these graceful animals thrust his head 

 above the surface of a pond or lake, turning it round until the resemblance to 

 a bent and gloved hand thrust above the surface of the water was most striking. 



