MAMMALIA. 
11 * 
19. Lutra canadensis. 
This Otter was considered in the Fauna Boreali-Americana to be the only one which frequents the fur 
countries, but Captain Back on his recent over-land expedition brought home a specimen of lutra lataxina 
from the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, and as the skins of both kinds are packed indiscriminately at the fur 
posts it is doubtful which is the species that inhabits the rivers of North west America. The canadensis, or 
braziliensis has a hairy muzzle. The lataxina is so like the common European otter that Baron Cuvier was 
unwilling to admit that they were distinct. 
22. Canis latrans. 
Skins of the coyote obtained in Mexico by Captain Sutherland, exhibited to the Zoological Society in 
August, 1833, were considered by the members to be identical with the prairie wolf of Say, specimens of 
which exist in the museum of the society. 
23. Canis ochropus. 
From the preceding remark it appears that this animal is but a slight local variety of canis latrans. 
25. Canis lagopus. 
Thieneman distinguishes two species of Arctic Fox, hitherto included under the Linnaean name of 
lagopus-. one for which he retains this old specific name he considers to be confined to the north of Europe; 
the other, for which he adopts the appellation of isatis, has for its assigned habit at the Arctic parts of Asia and 
America. If he be correct, this list should have contained Canis or vulpes isatis, to the exclusion of lagopus, 
but all the specimens that I have seen from the Greenland coasts and Hudson’s Bay territories have had the 
rounded ears of lagopus, with the tip of the tail more or less coloured. The range of these two foxes is 
therefore less limited than Thieneman believes, if the species be really distinct. 
29. Felis concolor. The cougar, or puma. 
An interesting dissection of an animal of this species, which died in the Zoological Gardens, is recorded 
by Mr. Martin in the Zoological proceedings for 1835, (page 120). He particularly notices the approximation 
of the glottis to the base of the tongue, the intervening space not exceeding an inch, or, when the tongue is 
protruded, an inch and a half : hence the puma is incapable of producing the “ roar” of the lion, or the 
“growl” of the jaguar, its voice being merely a shrill “snarl.” 
30. Felis onca. 
The difficulty of distinguishing the species of this genus is so great that naturalists doubt whether the 
animal seen by Lewis and Clarke on the Columbia was the jaguar or not. Temminck denies that there is 
any proof of the jaguar having been killed within the limits of the United States The resemblance of the 
glottis of this animal to that of the lion, and its distance from the base of the tongue rather exceeding three 
inches, furnishes a valuable character for distinguishing it at any age from the allied American species. In 
the ocelot, ( felis pardalis ), which is also an American animal, the rima glottidis and the base of the tongue 
are in close proximity, (vide Zool. pr. for 1832, p. '9.) Dr. Bachman informs me that an undescribed 
species of Felis, with a long tail and not larger than a house cat, is an inhabitant of Texas. 
