444 
SEA OTTEU. 
Lutra Marina. L. nigra, ylantis pilosis, caiida corpore quadruph 
hreoiore. 
Black O. with hairy feet^ and tail four times shorter than the 
body. 
Mustela Lutris. M. plantis palmads pilosis, cauda corpore quad- 
ruplo breviore. Lin. Syst, Nat. p. 66. 
Lutra marina. Steller nov. comm. Petrop. 2. p. 367. t, 26. 
Sea Otter. Pennant Qnadr. 2. p, 83. 
This is the largest of the Otters, measuring 
about three feet from the nose to the tail, and 
the tail thirteen inches. The colour of this spe- 
cies is a deep, glossy, brownish-black ; the fur 
being extremely soft and very fine: on the fore- 
head is generally a cast of greyish or silver-co- 
lour: the ears are erect, sharpish, and small: the 
whiskers long and white : the fore legs thick and 
furnished with four toes, covered with hair, and 
webbed: the hind feet resemble those of a Seal; 
the toes being connected by a strong granulated 
membrane, with a skin skirting the outward toe, 
as in some of the water-fowl : the tail is short, 
broad^ depressed, and pointed at the end. The 
Sea Otter has been found of the weight of seventy 
or eighty pounds. It is sometimes seen of a sil- 
very or hoary tinge. According to Mr. Pen- 
nant, it is one of the most local animals we are 
acquainted with, being entirely confined between 
lat. 44. and 60. north; and between east long, 
from London, 126. to 150.; inhabiting, in great 
abundance, Bering's islands, Kamtschatka> the 
