Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Part 32

This animal, according to Gray, is synonymous with the Siberian _Putorius Eversmannii_, although the sudden contraction of the brain case in front, behind the orbit, mentioned of this species, is not perceptible in the ill.u.s.tration given by Hodgson of the skull of this Thibetan specimen. Horsfield, in his catalogue, states that the second specimen obtained by Captain R. Strachey in Ladakh, north of k.u.maon, agreed in external character.

In some respects it is similar to the European Pole-cat, but as yet little is known of its habits.

NO. 192. PUTORIUS DAVIDIa.n.u.s.

HABITAT.--Moupin in Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Uniform fulvous brown, yellower under the throat; upper lip and round nostrils to corner of the eye white, darker on nose and forehead.

SIZE.--Head and body about 11-1/2 inches; tail, 6-1/2 inches.

This is one of the specimens collected by the Abbe David, after whom it is named. A fuller description of it will be found in Milne-Edwards's 'Recherches sur les Mammiferes,' page 343. There is also a plate of the animal in the volume of ill.u.s.trations.

NO. 193. PUTORIUS ASTUTUS.

HABITAT.--Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--About the size of Ermine, but with a longer tail.

Colour brown, the white of the chest tinted with yellow; tail uniform in colour, darker on head.

SIZE.--Head and body, 10 inches; tail, 4-1/5 inches.

This is also described and figured by Milne-Edwards.

NO. 194. PUTORIUS MOUPINENSIS.

HABITAT.--Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Reddish-brown, white under the chin, and then again a patch on the chest.

_LUTRIDAE--THE OTTERS_.

We now come to the third group of the musteline animals, the most aquatic of all the Fissipedia--the _Lutridae_ or Otters--of which there are two great divisions, the common Otters (_Lutra_) and the Sea-Otters, (_Enhydra_). With the latter, a most interesting animal in all its ways, as well as most valuable on account of its fur, we have nothing to do. I am not aware that it is found in the tropics, but is a denizen of the North Pacific. Of _Lutra_ we have several species in two genera. Dr. Gray has divided the Otters into no less than nine genera on three characteristics, the tail, feet, and muzzle, but these have been held open to objection. The cla.s.sification most to be depended upon is the division of the tribe into long-clawed Otters (_Lutra_), and short or rudimentary-clawed Otters (_Aonyx_).

The characteristics of the skulls confirm this arrangement, as the short-clawed Otters are distinguishable from the others by a shorter and more globose cranium and larger molars, and, as Dr. Anderson says, "the inner portion of the last molar being the largest part of the tooth, while in _Lutra_ the outer exceeds the inner half; the almost general absence of the first upper premolar; and the rudimentary claws, which are a.s.sociated with much more feebly-developed finger and toe bones, which are much tapered to a point, while in _Lutra_ these bones are strong and well developed." Gray has separated a genus, which he called _Pteronura_, on account of a flattened tail arising from a longitudinal ridge on each side, but this flattening of the tail is common to all the genera more or less.

All the Otters, though active on land, are still only thoroughly at home in the water, and they are therefore specially const.i.tuted for such a mode of life. They have an elongated flattened form; webbed feet with short claws; compressed and tapering tail; dense fur of two kinds, one of long brown s.h.i.+ning hairs; the under fur short and fine, impervious to wet, and well adapted for keeping an equality of temperature; the skull is peculiar, the brain case being very long, and compressed from above downwards; the facial portion forms only about one-fourth of the extreme length; the teeth are strong and sharp; the upper flesh tooth very large.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Otter's skull (side and under view).]

Dental formula: Inc., 3--3/3--3; can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 4--4/3--3; molars, 1--1/2--2.

Jerdon states that the otter has a nict.i.tating membrane or additional semi-transparent eyelid, similar to that in the eyes of birds, which he supposes is a defence to them under water; but I have not noticed this myself, and have failed to discover it in the writings of others.

I should think that the vision of the animal under water would not require obscuring by a semi-transparent membrane, which none of the marine carnivora possess, though their eyes are somewhat formed for seeing better under water than when exposed to the full light above.

Some idea of the rapidity of these animals in the water may be conceived when we think that their food is almost exclusively fish, of which they sometimes kill more than they can eat. They reside in burrows, making the entrance under water, and working upwards, making a small hole for the ventilation of their chamber. The female has about four or five young ones at a time, after a period of gestation of about nine weeks, and the mother very soon drives them forth to s.h.i.+ft for themselves in the water.

For a pretty picture of young otters at play in the water, nothing could be better than the following description from Kingsley's 'Water Babies':--

"Suddenly Tom heard the strangest noise up the stream--cooing, grunting, and whining, and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two stock-doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, and left them there to settle themselves and make music. He looked up the water, and there he saw a sight as strange as the noise: a great ball rolling over and over down the stream, seeming one moment of soft brown fur; and the next of s.h.i.+ning gla.s.s, and yet it was not a ball, for sometimes it broke up and streamed away in pieces, and then it joined again; and all the while the noise came out of it louder and louder. Tom asked the dragon-fly, what it could be: but of course with his short sight he could not even see it, though it was not ten yards away. So he took the neatest little header into the water, and started off to see for himself; and when he came near, the ball turned out to be four or five beautiful creatures, many times larger than Tom, who were swimming about, and rolling, and diving, and twisting, and wrestling, and cuddling, and kissing, and biting, and scratching, in the most charming fas.h.i.+on that ever was seen. And if you don't believe me you may go to the Zoological Gardens (for I am afraid you won't see it nearer, unless, perhaps, you get up at five in the morning, and go down to Cordery's Moor, and watch by the great withy pollard which hangs over the back-water, where the otters breed sometimes), and then say if otters at play in the water are not the merriest, lithest, gracefullest creatures you ever saw."

Professor Parker, who also notices Kingsley's description,[9]

states that the Canadian otter has a peculiar habit in winter of sliding down ridges of snow, apparently for amus.e.m.e.nt. It, with its companions, scrambles up a high ridge, and then, lying down flat, glides head-foremost down the declivity, sometimes for a distance of twenty yards. "This sport they continue apparently with the keenest enjoyment, until fatigue or hunger induces them to desist."

[Footnote 9: In fact it was his quotation that induced me to buy a copy of that most charming little book, which I recommend every one to read.--R. A. S.]

The following are the Indian species; _Lutra nair_, _L. simung vel monticola_, _L. Ellioti_, and _L. aurobrunnea_ of the long-clawed family, and _Aonyx leptonyx_ of the short-clawed.

_GENUS LUTRA_.

NO. 195. LUTRA NAIR.

_The Common Indian Otter_ (_Jerdon's No. 100_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Ud_ or _Ood_, _Ood-bilao_, _Panikutta_, Hindi; _Nir-nai_, Canarese; _Neeru-kuka_, Telegu; _Jal-manjer_, Mahratti.

HABITAT.--India generally, Burmah and Ceylon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Lutra nair_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Hair more or less brown above, sometimes with a chestnut hue, sometimes grizzled, or with a tinge of dun; yellowish-white, or with a fulvescent tinged white below; the throat, upper lip, and sides of head are nearly white; the line of separation of upper and lower parts not very distinctly marked. Some have whitish paws.

SIZE.--Head and body, 29 to 30 inches; tail about 17 inches.

This otter, which is synonymous with _L. Indica_, _L. Chinensis_ and Hodgson's _L. Tarayensis_, is well known throughout India, and indeed far beyond Indian limits. They are generally found in secluded spots, in parties of about half a dozen hunting in concert. The young ones are easily tamed, and become greatly attached if kindly treated.

I had one for some time. Jerdon tells a curious story of one he had, and which used to follow him in his walks. He says: "As it grew older it took to going about by itself, and one day found its way to the bazaar and seized a large fish from a moplah. When resisted, it showed such fight that the rightful owner was fain to drop it. Afterwards it took regularly to this highway style of living, and I had on several occasions to pay for my pet's dinner rather more than was necessary, so I resolved to get rid of it. I put it in a closed box, and, having kept it without food for some time, I conveyed it myself in a boat some seven or eight miles off, up some of the numerous back-waters on this coast. I then liberated it, and, when it had wandered out of sight in some inundated paddy-fields, I returned by boat by a different route. That same evening, about nine whilst in the town about one and a-half miles from my own house, witnessing some of the ceremonials connected with the Mohurrum festival, the otter entered the temporary shed, walked across the floor, and came and lay down at my feet!" It is to be hoped Dr. Jerdon did not turn him adrift again; such wonderful sagacity and attachment one could only expect in a dog.

McMaster gives the following interesting account of otters hunting on the Chilka Lake: "Late one morning I saw a party, at least six in number, leave an island on the Chilka Lake and swim out, apparently to fish their way to another island, or the mainland, either at least two miles off. I followed them for more than half the distance in a small canoe. They worked most systematically in a semicircle, with intervals of about fifty yards between each, having, I suppose, a large shoal of fish in the centre, for every now and then an otter would disappear, and generally, when it was again seen, it was well inside the semicircle with a fish in its jaws, caught more for pleasure than for profit, as the fish, as far as I could see, were always left behind untouched beyond a single bite. I picked up several of these fish, which, as far as I can recollect, were all mullet." Kingsley notices this. The old otter tells Tom: "We catch them, but we disdain to eat them all; we just bite out their soft throats and suck their sweet juice--oh, so good!" (and she licked her wicked lips)--"and then throw them away, and go and catch another."

General McMaster also quotes from a letter by "W. C. R." in the _Field_ about the end of 1868, which gives a very curious incident of a crocodile stealing up to a pack of otters fis.h.i.+ng, and got within thirty yards; "but no sooner was the water broken by the hideous head of the reptile, than an otter, which evidently was stationed on the opposite bank as a sentinel, sounded the alarm by a whistling sort of sound. In an instant those in the water rushed to the bank and disappeared among the jungle, no doubt much to the disgust of the _mugger_."

I have not heard any one allude to the offensive glands of the Indian otter, but I remember once dissecting one and incautiously cutting into one of these glands, situated, I think, near the tail. It is now over twenty years ago, so I cannot speak with authority, but I remember the abominable smell, which quite put a stop to my researches at the time.

This otter is trained in some parts of India, in the Jessore district and Sunderbunds of Bengal, to drive fish into nets. In China a species there is driven into the water with a cord round its waist, which is hauled in when the animal has caught a fish.

NO. 196. LUTRA MONTICOLA _vel_ SIMUNG.

(_Jerdon's No. 101_).

HABITAT.--Nepal, Sumatra, and Borneo.

DESCRIPTION.--"The colour is more rufous umber-brown than _L. nair_, and does not exhibit any tendency to grizzling, and the under surface is only somewhat h.o.a.ry, well washed with brownish; the chin and edge of the lips are whitish; and the silvery h.o.a.ry on the sides of the head, on the throat, and on the under surface of the neck and of the chest is marked; the tail above and below is concolorous with the trunk. The length of the skeleton of an adult female, measured from the tip of the premaxillaries to the end of the sacral vertebrae, is 23.25, and the tail measures 17.75 inches" (_Anderson_). Of the Sumatran specimen the first notice was published in 1785 in the first edition of Marsden's 'History of Sumatra.' This otter is larger than the common Indian one, the skull of a female, as given by Dr. Anderson, exceeding in all points that of male of _Lutra nair_.

Jerdon has this as _Lutra vulgaris_, which is the common English otter, but there is a difference in the skull.