NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERS, OTTERS AND FISHERS. 427 



Brunswick, Restigouche river, 1 skin ; Nova Scotia, Annapolis, 1 skin with skull ; 

 Maine, Upton, 1 skin with skull ; Bucksport, 1 skull ; Massachusetts, Kingston, 1 skin 

 with skull ; Westford, 1 skull ; Canton, 1 skull ; Missouri, 1 skull ; British Columbia, 

 Vernon, 1 skull ; Alaska, Tanana river, 1 skull. 



Carolinian Otter. Lutra hudsonica lataxina (F. Cuvier). 

 Plate XXIV ; Fig. 4. 

 Lutra lataxina F. Cuvier, Diet, des Sci. Nat., 1823, p. 242. 



Type Locality. — South Carolina. 



Geographic Distribution. — Carolinian faunal region, intergrading through the Tran- 

 sition region northward with hudsonica and southward through the Austrariparian into 

 vaga of southern Florida. 



Color. — Much lighter than hudsonica. Above (from a specimen taken at Liberty 

 Hill, Conn., No. 4252, ad. d\ Nov. 19, 1895, collection of E. A. and O. Bangs*), dark 

 vandyke brown, tipped on upper head, neck and shoulders with wood brown, darkening 

 posteriorly. Upper feet and limbs dark bistre. Below, from lower breast to end of tail, 

 between Prout's brown and broccoli brown. Head, neck and breast, including ears, 

 below a line connecting nose, upper eyelid, upper ear and upper base of fore leg, grayish 

 wood brown, lightest on head, darkening posteriorly to color {I. c.) of breast. The aver- 

 age Carolinian winter specimens from Maryland southward are somewhat lighter and 

 some are Prout's brown above, the wood brown of lower head and neck becoming a pale 

 grayish buff. 



Anatomical Characters. — Size, smallest of the hudsonica subspecies. Inferior webs 

 of feet and interspace between callosities of manus, sparsely haired. Hind foot with 

 claw about 120 mm. Total length rarely exceeding 1100 mm. Skull relatively small, 

 with very large teeth, and weak postorbital processes. In other respects like the hud- 

 sonica type. 



Measurements. — See tables. 



Remarks. — The relations of this subspecies to northern hudsonica on the one hand 

 and to the southern vaga on the other are rather peculiar. It is without question a 

 nearer ally to hudsonica than vaga in the territory between Connecticut and South Caro- 

 lina, but, as Mr. Bangs has implied in his remarks on vaga, there is a tendency in the 

 Georgia (and we may infer in the South Carolina) otter to the large size and peculiar 



* This specimen comes from the northern edge of the Carolinian region. No equally good skins from more southern 

 localities being available, it is used as typic.il of the Carolinian race. It corresponds closely to two fine 189T-S winter 

 pelts of Maryland otters, examined through the courtesy of Mr. S. E. Shoyer, of Philadelphia. 



