igo The Mammals of Colorado 
politan genus absent from Australia only. Elliot's Check- 
list gives 4 species and 4 subspecies as inhabiting North 
and Middle America, with one form found in Colorado. 
Lutra canadensis. Canadian Otter 
Lutra canadensis sonora. Sonoran Otter 
Mustela lutra canadensis Schreber, Saiight., 1776, pi. cxxvi. B; 
Text 1778. 
Type locality. — Eastern Canada. 
Lutra canadensis sonora Rhoads, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, N. S., 
xix., p. 431 (1898). 
Type locality. — Montezuma Well, Beaver Creek, Yavapai Co., 
Arizona. 
It is impossible to say at present which form is represented 
in this State. 
Measurements. — Total length, 45; tail vert., 14; hind foot, 4.5. 
Description. — (From a Colorado specimen) : Dark brown above, 
including tail; hairs on back gray-tipped for i to ^ inch, giving a 
silvery appearance ; under fur thick and brown; belly brown, lighter 
than back and somev/hat grayish ; upper lip, chin, and throat gray, 
with a very slight yellowish cast; legs and feet brown. 
Distribution. — The otter, in one form or another, is distributed 
all over the North American continent from nearly to the Arctic 
Ocean south into Mexico. It is very rare in Colorado, and we have 
but few records of its occurrence in this State ; it is reported from 
Grand Junction, Greeley, Julesburg, and from the Grand and Bear 
rivers; the skin from which the description was taken is supposed 
to have come from somewhere on the headwaters of the Arkansas. 
Habits. — Otters, being animals of aquatic habits, are sel- 
dom or never found far away from water, except sometimes 
when migrating from one stream or watershed to another. 
Their food is almost exclusively fish, which they catch in the 
water, diving and swimming after them. The young are from 
three to five in number, born in early summer, the den 
being in a suitable hole or cave under the bank. Thanks to 
their fine fur otters are much trapped and their numbers much 
lessened for this reason; but this does not explain their scarcity 
in Colorado, where they appear to have always been rare. 
