NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERS, OTTERS AND FISHERS. 433 



Newfoundland Otter. Lutra degener Bangs. 

 Plate XXIV; Fig. 5. 

 Lutra degener Bangs, Proe. Biol. Soc. Wash., XII, 1898, p. 35. 



Type Locality. — Bay St. George, Newfoundland. 



Geographic Distribution- — Confined to Newfoundland (?). 



Color. — Of type, ad. J 1 , taken April 22, 189.7 : Above, black with seal brown reflec- 

 tions. Ears, seal brown. Lower head and neck areas grayish wood brown, becoming- 

 seal brown on breast ; the remainder of lower parts nearly as dark as back. Tail uni- 

 color. Feet seal brown and densely haired on under side of webs and palmar interspaces. 



Anatomical Characters. — Size, much smaller than any of the hudsonica group. 

 Hind foot small, with claw averaging about 112 mm.* long in the two specimens exam- 

 ined. Total length about 1000 mm. Tail relatively short. Skull very small, narrowed, 

 weak and fragile ; the brain case wide anteriorly ; the frontal and interorbital widths 

 narrow and the postorbital processes weak and slender, strongly grooved on their supe- 

 rior face. Sagittal crest not developed even in old specimens. Interorbital constric- 

 tion about equal to postorbital constriction. Teeth Aveak, with normal cuspidation. 

 Audital bulla? normal. 



Measurements. — See tables. 



Remarks. — The type specimens of degener, so generously loaned to me by Mr. 

 Bangs, when compared with the large series used in the preparation of this paper, con- 

 vince me that this depauperate insular form has no intercourse with the larger typical 

 hudsonica of Labrador and New Brunswick. A skull from Grand river, Labrador, shows 

 no approach to the degener type, and another from Okak, Labrador, agrees in the same 

 differences. A young adult skull and skin of hudsonica from Nova Scotia, and an adult 

 summer skin from New Brunswick, show that the maritime otter of the mainland some- 

 times attains a size nearly one-third larger than the largest known specimens of old, 

 adult degener. 



Specimens Examined. — Newfoundland, Bay St. George, 2 skins with skulls, 1 extra 

 skull. 



THE FISHEKS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Apology must be made for the inferior series of skins and skulls which form the 

 basis of the subjoined remarks on the Pekan. They. serve, however, to elucidate some 



*The collector's measurement of the hind foot of type is given on label as " 126 mm." This is certainly incorrect, 

 as the length determinable by feeling the calcaneum in the dry skin could not have exceeded 115 mm. This accords with 

 the small size of the hind foot and the length of other specimens of degener. 



