MAMMALIA. 57 
J20.] 12 Lurra Canapensis. (Sabine.) The Canada Otter. 
Genus. Lutra. Ray. Cuvier. 
Loutre de Canada. Burrow, vol. xiii. p. 326. t. 44. 
Common Otter. PENNANT, 4rct. Zool., vol.i. p. 86. 
Land Otter. WarpbEn, United States, vol. i. p. 206. 
Lutra Canadensis. SaBinE, Franklin’s Journ., p. 653. 
Lutra Brasiliensis. Haritan, Fauna, p. 72: 
The American Otter, Gopman, Nat. Hist., vol.i. p.222. 
Neekeek, CREE INDIaNs. Capucca. INHABITANTS OF Nootka. 
Buffon describes an Otter from Canada as differing from the European species 
merely in its greater size, and the colour of its fur, Ray had previously enume- 
rated the Saricovienne of La Plata, or the Carigueibeju (Sarigoviou) of Brasil, as a 
species of his genus /utra, distinct from Lutra vulgaris. Pennant, in his History of 
Quadrupeds, following Linnzeus and Brisson, refers the Brasilian Otter to the Sea 
Otter, of the following article; but, in his Arctic Zoology, he describes the 
Brasilian as a peculiar species confined to the warm parts of America; whilst he 
considers the Otter of the northern rivers as identified with the Common Otter of 
Europe. Baron Cuvier again unites the Canada and Brasil Otters under the name 
of Voutre d’ Amérique ; but the character ascribed by Margrave to the lutra Bra- 
stliensis, of its tail and feet being of the same length, will not by any means apply 
to the Canada Otter, and I have therefore followed Mr. Sabine, in considering the 
subject of this article to be a species peculiar to the northern districts of America. 
M. Frederick Cuvier not only separates the Otter of Canada from that of South 
America, but also describes a distinct species inhabiting an intermediate district 
(Lutra lataxina.)* 
The Canada Otter resembles the European species in its habits and food. In 
the winter season, it frequents rapids and falls, to have the advantage of open water ; 
and when its usual haunts are frozen over, it will travel to a great distance through 
the snow, in search of a rapid that has resisted the severity of the weather. If 
seen, and pursued by hunters on these journies, it will throw itself forward on 
its belly, and slide through the snow for several yards, leaving a deep furrow 
behind it. This movement is repeated with so much rapidity, that even a swift 
* Dict. des Sciences Nat., xxvii. 
I 
