424 CONTRIBUTIONS TO A REVISION OF TSE 



Hudsonian Otter. Lutra hudsonica (" Lacepede," Desmarest). 



Plate XXIV ; Figs. 1 and 2. 



Mustek, lutra Linn., canadensis Schreber, Saugt., Ill, PI. CXXVI, B. (dated 1778 on 

 title-page, but, according to Sherborn, the text of Vol. Ill was published in 1777 

 and this plate in 1776). 



Mustela {lutra) canadensis Kerr, Linn. An. Kingd., I, 1792, p. 173 (see Thomas, Proc. 

 Zool. Soe. Load,, 1889, p. 197, and Allen, Bull. Amer. Mas. N. Hist., VII, 1895, 

 p. 188). 



"Mustela hudsonica Lacep. [ede] ," Desmarest, Nouv. Diet, d' Hist. Nat., XIII, 1803, p. 

 384; {Nouv. Ed.) 1817, p. 219. 



Lutra canadensis J. Sabine, App. Franhl. Jour., 1823, p. 653, and of nearly all subse- 

 quent authors (not L. canadensis F. Cuvier, Diet. Sci. Nat., 1823, p. 242 ; see O. 

 Thomas, /. c, p. 197). 



Lutra hudsonica F. Cuvier, Suppl. Buff., I, 1831, p. 194; Merriam, N Amer. Fauna, 

 No. 5, 1891, p. 82. 



Lataxina mollis Gray, List Mamm. Brit. Mas., 1843, p. 70. 



Lutra destructor Barnston, Canad. Nat. and Geolog., VIII, 1863, p. 147, Figs. 1 to 6. 



Type Locality. — " Ou la trouve au Canada sur les bords de la mer." 

 Geographic Distribution. — Northern North America from the Arctic ocean south- 

 ward into the United States and from the Atlantic ocean to the Cascade mountains ; 

 intergrading southeastwardl} r into subspecies lataxina F. Cuvier and vaga Bangs, south- 

 centrally into subspecies soronce Rhoads, and westwardly into subspecies pacifica Rhoads.* 

 Color (taken from two specimens in the Bangs collection, No. 5638, yg. ad. tf, 

 Annapolis, Nova Scotia, November 23, 1896, and No. 4190, ad. $, Upton, Me., Octo- 

 ber 25, 1895). — Above, dark seal brown from nose to tip of tail, darkest posteriorly, 

 below from breast to tail between broccoli and Vandyke brown in the Nova Scotia speci- 

 men and between seal and vandyke brown in the Maine specimen. Head and neck 

 below a line running from nose to lower base of ear and base of foreles; liaht Isabella 

 color anteriorly darkening on lower neck to wood brown in the Nova Scotia animal. In 

 the Maine specimen the neck is Prout's brown. Feet, legs and tail corresponding to 

 darker shades of upper and lower body. A summer specimen from New Brunswick 

 is dark, vandyke brown, but little paler below than on back, and darker than winter 

 specimens of lataxina from Maryland. 



* The olters of Louisiana and Mississippi are stated by furriers lo be very dark and light^pelted, resembling South 

 Florida and Gulf-coast skins. No specimens having been examined, they are referred to vaga. 



