LESSER OTTER. 
(** between the names this animal goes by, in 
America and in Sweden — Mink, and M^nk — • 
it seems as if some Swedish colonist, who had 
seen it in his own country, first bestowed the 
name it now goes by, a little changed from 
the original. The skins are often brought 
over to England." 
I 
La Hontan seems to mean the same animal 
as our Lesser Otter, by his Foutereaux, an 
amphibious sort of little Pole-Cats; which 
I agrees with the idea expressed by Bartram. 
Lavv'son, also, in his History of Carolina, 
gives some account of the Lesser Otter. " It 
is," he says, " a great enem.y to the Tor- 
toise ; whose eggs it scrapes out of the sand, 
and devours. It eats fresh-water Muscles; 
the shells of which are found in great abun- 
dance at the mouth of their holes, high up the 
rivers in the banks of which they live. They 
may be made domestic, and are great destroyers 
of Rats and Mice." 
BufFon makes no mention of our Lesser 
Otter ; which, it should seem, has either 
escaped his notice, or been considered as a 
variety 
