NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERS, OTTERS AND FISHERS. 431 



not prove to be the same as the so-called Lutra paranensis Rengg. which he assumed 

 might occur throughout the whole Pacific coast regions of America. The close relation- 

 ship of our Pacific coast otters to hudsonica will effectually remove them from any com- 

 plication with paranensis, but as regards aterrima we must devote sufficient space to show 

 the impossibility of referring the Alaskan land otter to that animal, as Trouessart has 

 lately done.* 



A careful study of Pallas' original description, together with the fact that no later 

 author or explorer has been able to explain or rediscover the animal, convinces me that 

 it is either unidentifiable or will prove not to belong to the Lutrince but to the Mustelines. 

 Pallas states it to be intermediate in size between the European otter and the European 

 mink. He states the length of the skin to be 19 inches, 3 lines, and of the tail 5 inches 

 with a brush of W inches ! The color of the animal is said to be very black and shin- 

 ing, except the sides of the head between the eyes and ears, which change from black to 

 " subrufescent." The absurdity of applying such a description to the animal which I 

 have named pacifica, or, indeed, to any member of the genus Lutra, is certainly evident. 

 So far as any animal now known to zoologists is concerned, the Viverra aterrima of Pallas 

 should be consigned to oblivion. 



Another name which has given trouble to those who had to deal with the Pacific 

 coast otter is the Lutra californica of Gray. Fortunately, Mr. Thomas has effectually 

 exposed the history and at the same time the inapplicability of that name to a North 

 American animal of the hudsonica type. He has shown in his paper in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society (I. c, p. 198) that Gray's type of californica did not come from 

 California, but most likely from Patagonia, in which case he makes it a synonym of 

 Lutra felina Molina. 



Specimens Examined. — Washington, near Tacoma, 3 skulls ; Lake Kichelos, 1 skin 

 with skull, 1 skull ; Oregon, 1 skull ; British Columbia, Sumas, 1 skull ; Alaska 

 (coast?), 3 skulls ; Kodiak Island, 2 skulls ; Mission, 1 skull ; Queraquinaf Island, 1 

 skull. 



Sonoran Otter. Lutra hudsonica sonora, subsp. nov. 



Lutra canadensis Mearns, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Ill, 1891, pp. 253-25(3. 



Typje Locality. — Montezuma Well, Beaver creek, Yavapai county, Arizona. Type, 

 ad. ?, No. 3 3 7 x 9 2 - in the collection of the' American Museum of Natural History. Col- 

 lected December 26, 1886, by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns. 



* Catalogns Mammalium, I. c. 



f It is conjectured that this skull came from the North Pacific. It has Capt. T. J. Turner's name on it. I cannot 

 find an island of this name on the maps. 



A. P. S. VOL. XIX. 3 C. 



