1842.] , Asiatic Society. 99 



white spots, which suggest the name of humeralis for the species, should it prove to 

 be new : length about a foot, or rather more ; and tail minus the hair about five 

 inches additional. From Darjeeling, as are also the Otters. 



5th. Mr. Bouchez has presented us with a stuffed skin of Lutra nair. 



6th. Among the recent specimens procured is a fine large female Otter, which 

 appears to be the L. Tarayensis of Mr. Hodgson (Jour. As. Soc. 1839, 319), dif- 

 fering from the description given by that gentleman only in the under-parts being of 

 a less whitish, or " pure yellowish-white" hue, and the paws scarcely albescent, but 

 of a lighter and more fulvous brown than the rest. It also accords so nearly with 

 Jenyns's description of the European species (Brit. Vert. p. 13), that I am doubt- 

 ful if it will not prove to be the very same, though (judging from memory of the lat- 

 ter) it appears to me to be rather a stronger and stouter animal. General structure 

 as described by Mr. Hodgson, and total length 46 inches, of which the tail (which 

 is 3 inches broad at base, becoming much more depressed and tapering to the extre- 

 mity,) measured 17^ inches ; girth immediately behind the shoulders 15^ inches; limbs 

 very robust, the anterior measuring 6^ inches from elbow joint, and entire naked palm 

 to the extremity of middle toe 3£ inches ; tarse, to end of middle toe | inch, and 

 hairy for U inch. This animal ha,d Jive large abdominal teats, and not the slightest trace 

 (internally or externally) of a third anterior on the left side; which circumstance is 

 interesting, as shewing how little dependence can be placed on the number of teats 

 as a specific character : the lactiferous vessels were fully distended, indicating that 

 the poor creature was giving suck. The fur is short, and (so far as I can remember) 

 absolutely similar in colour to that of the British Otter, having the throat and sides 

 of the face, to a line even with the eye and posterior base of the ear, rather dull or 

 cinerascent white, which colour occupies only the tips of the hairs, and less of them 

 on the lower part of the front of the neck and on the chest, till beyond the latter the 

 lower parts are but slightly hoary: feet as described; and tail dark underneath; the 

 white of the face, throat, and upper part of the fore-neck only, is abruptly divided 

 from the dark colour of the parts above. This animal was shot on the salt-water lake 

 above Calcutta; and I have had both its skin and skeleton set up.* 



The Otters which Dr. Pearson has presented agree with none of those described 

 by Mr. Hodgson, but seem to be allied to the L. monticola of that naturalist, from 

 which they differ in being not of a deeper, but of a more rufous, brown than the last, : 

 in the pallid hue of the under-parts being throughout abruptly separated from the 

 brown above ; and in "the intermediate incisors of the lower jaw" being placed in an 

 even line with the rest, at least if the third or central pair be intended by Mr. 

 Hodgson, but, if the second pair (intermediate to the central and the outermost) be 

 meant, then there is a slight difference between this and the preceding species, where- 

 in the series of lower incisors forms quite a straight line. Fur longer than in the 

 preceding, more as in L. leptonyx, but much darker than in that animal, of a shin- 

 ing dark colcotkar-brov/n at base, slightly grizzled with a pale annulation near the 

 extremity; under-parts dull fulvous-white, formed by hairs of this colour, but mode- 

 rately close, protruding through the dense inner felt which has a brown surface ; this 

 fulvous-white, too, is continued underneath to the tail-tip. Size about that of L. nair; 



* The same species inhabits the Indus, and I very much incline to the opinion, 

 that it is no other than L, vulgaris. Three living cubs have since been brought to 

 me.— E. B. 



