318 
VEKTEBRATA. 
the upper and under surface*, it has also less extent of tlie pale color beneath the throat, as com- 
pared with the L. vulgaris ; and there is some difference in the ears, and in the proportions of 
other parts. Other naturalists regard this only as a variety. The kind spotted with white, is 
called "King of the Otters" by the ignorant Scotch, who hold that it bears a sort of charmed life, 
in so far that its death is never unaccompanied by the death of a man or some other living crea- 
ture. The skin is considered precious as an antidote against infection, wounds, and the dangers 
of the sea. One of these spotted otters is at the Museum at Paris, near which place it was found. 
Mr. Macgillivray says that he has heard of white otters, but had never seen an albino. 
In the older annals of sporting in England, otter-hunting holds no inconsiderable place. Som- 
erville describes it at some length, and with much unction. It is now fast dying away, but is still 
kept up in some parts of Wales and Scotland. 
The Nair-Nair, L. JVair, has the fur deep-chestnut, lightest on the sides; the lower part of the 
neck and cheeks, as well as the throat, bright reddish-brown; above the eye a ruddy yellow or 
yellowish- white spot. It is the Nir-nayie of the people of Pondicherry, the Water-cat or Juki 
Marjur of the Mahrattas, and is probably the species seen by Bishop Heber, who passed a row 
of nine or ten large and very beautiful otters, tethered with straw collars and long strings to bam- 
boo stakes on the banks of the Matta Colly. "Some," he says, "were swimming about at the full 
extent of their strings, or lying half in and half out of the water; others were rolling themselves 
in the sun on the sandy bank, uttering a shrill whistling noise, as if in play. I was told that 
THE OTTEE. 
most of the fishermen in this neighborhood kept one or more of these animals, who were almost 
as tame as dogs, and of great use in fishing; sometimes driving the shoals into the nets, some- 
times bringing out the larger fish with their teeth." This is another proof, if any were wanting, 
of the feasibility of taming these animals and rendering them useful to man. The nair-nair is a 
native of the East Indies. 
The x\merican Otter, or Canada Otter, L. Canadensis^ is the Loutre de Canada of Buff"on; 
Lutra Brasiliensis of Harlan; Neekeek of the Cree Indians; and Capucca of the inhabitants of 
Nootka. This animal, peculiar to America, has the fur above and below shining brown, and 
much resembling that of the beaver. The size is much larger than that of the European 
otter, measuring from the nose to the tip of the tail, which is eighteen inches, five feet. In 
