LUTRA, the otter, in natural history, a genus of mammalia of the order Perm. Generic character : six cutting teeth ra ther sharp ; canine teeth longer ; feet webbed. There are eight species, of which we shall notice only the following.
L. vulgaries, is met with in almost all the countries of Europe, and throughout the north of Asia. It is not considered as completely amphibious, but can subsist a long while under water, lives principally upon fish, and takes its prey with great facility in rivers and lakes, in the banks of which it generally fixes its habitation, forming it with extreme elaborateness and precaution with respect to danger. When unable to procure fishes, it de stroys and devours the smaller quadru peds. It is highly fierce, and, when pur sued by dogs, will defend itself with un common vigour and perseverance, utter ing no sounds of pain or fear, though al most torn to pieces by its assailants, but employing its last efforts of existence in inflicting upon them in return the most dreadful wounds and lacerations. The fe male produces four or five young in the spring. Otters have been so successfully tamed, notwithstanding all their fierce ness, as to accompany their owners like dogs, and obey calls and signals with the same promptitude. Mr. Bewick relates, that Mr. James Campbell possessed a young otter of this description, and which had been trained by him with such success to catch fish, that in a single day it would sometimes take ten salmon. When wearied with its hunt, it would de cline further exertion, and receive its re ward in an ample repast on the fish it had taken, and fall almost instantaneously to sleep, being generally conveyed home in that state. It would. fish in the sea as
well as in rivers. Otters are sometimes seen in Guinea in large companies, and of immense size, weighing not less than one hundred pounds, and so savage as to be highly dangerous. Otters are remarked for eating only the head and upperparts of the fishes which they take, unless particular ly pressed by hunger, and appear to have a propensity to destruction itself, like the pole-cat, always killing many more ani mals than it can devour. Sec Mammalia, Plate XVI. fig. 6.
L. Marina, or the sea-otter, is about four feet and a quarter in its whole length, and is found almost solely between the forty-fourth and sixtieth degree of N. la titude, and the one hundred and twen tieth and one hundred and fiftieth degree of E. longitude. Its skin is an important article of commerce between the Rus sians and the Chinese, and a single fur of this animal is not unfrequently sold for the amazing price of twenty-five pounds. Sea-otters are perfectly inoffensive, and the female manifests the most affection ate attachment to her young, fondling it with endless caresses, and often throwing it in the air and catching it with the ut most caution and tenderness. These ani mals feed on crabs, lobsters, and other shell-fish, and frequent the shalloNs which are most thickly covered with sea weeds. The flesh of the young is thought parti cularly like lamb, and is highly valued. The American species are, the Canaden sis, Lutris, Ultra, Lutreola, and Minx.