Naturalists do not seem to have been acquainted with this animal, nor to have known that the _carigueibeju_ of Brasil, which is certainly the same, had membranes between the toes, for Marcgrave, who has given a description of it, totally omits this essential character. I am also of opinion that the _guachi_, mentioned by Gumilla, which is a species of otter in South America, is the same as the saricovienne. Marcgrave and Desmarchais describe it to be as big as a middling sized dog: that the top of its head is round, and its nose long; that its teeth and whiskers resemble those of the cat; that it has small black eyes, round ears, five toes on each foot, with a kind of thumb shorter than the others, and all armed with brown claws; that its hair, which is short and soft, is black on the body, and has a white spot under the chin; that its voice is somewhat like that of a young dog; and notwithstanding it lives principally on crabs and fish, its flesh is very good, and its skin makes an excellent fur. THE CANADIAN OTTER. This Otter, (_fig. 191._) which is larger than ours, and which must be a native of the north of Europe, as well as of Canada, occasioned me to enquire whether it was not the same animal as that called by Aristotle the _latax_, which, he says, is much larger and stronger than the common otter. But his observations do not entirely agree with the animal in question, and therefore as it perfectly resembles the common otter in other respects, I judged that it was not a particular species, but only a simple variety; and as the Greeks, especially Aristotle, have taken great care not to give different names, except to distinct species, we are therefore convinced that the _latax_ is another animal. Besides, as the otters, like the beavers, are commonly larger, and their hair finer, and of a more beautiful black in America than in Europe; this Canadian otter ought, in fact, to be larger and blacker than our otter. But in attempting to discover what the _latax_ of Aristotle might be, I conjectured that it was the same animal as Belon calls the _marine wolf_.