74 NATURAL D1STOKY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Nothing further respecting llie breeding habits or sexual relations of the species appears to 

 have been as yet recorded, but they may be presumed to be similar to those of the Sea Elephant 

 of the Antarctic Seas. 1 



COMPARISON WITH THE SOUTHERN SEA ELEPHANT. So far as can be determined by descrip- 

 tions, the Northern and the Southern Sea Elephants 2 differ very little in size, color, or other 

 external features. Captain Scammon gives the average length of the full grown male of the 

 northern species as twelve to fourteen feet, and says that the largest he ever measured had a length 

 of twenty-two feet "from tip to tip." Peron gives the length of the southern species as twenty to 

 twenty-five, and even thirty feet, with a circumference of fifteen to eighteen feet. Alison gives 

 the length as twelve to twenty feet, and the circumference, as eight to fifteen feet. PeTnety records 

 the total length as twenty-five feet. Scaminon gives the length of the young of the northern 

 species, at birth, as four feet; and Pe>ou gives four or five feet as the length of the young at birth 

 for the southern species. The skeletons of the two old males of the southern species, already 

 mentioned, allowing for the intervertebral cartilages that have disappeared in maceration, measure 

 respectively not over fifteen and sixteen feet, adding to which the length of the hind flipper and 



the proboscis gives a total length, from "tip to tip," of about twenty-one to twenty-two feet. From 





 the foregoing we may infer that the usual difference in size between the two species is not great, 



the southern species on the whole appearing to be somewhat the larger of the two. It would seem 

 that tlie Northern and Southern Sea Elephants, though presumably distinct, are closely allied, as 

 well in structural characters as in habits. In respect to geographical distribution, I am not aware 

 that the southern species has been found north of about the 35th degree of south latitude (the 

 Island of Juan Fernandez), or the northern species soiith of about the 241 h degree of north latitude. 

 It may consequently be safely assumed that the two forms have been long isolated, and that the 

 southern is an offshoot from northern stock, since the only other known species of the Cyxtophorince 

 is also northern in its distribution. 



> It is he re assumed that the Sea Elephant!) of the Southern Hemisphere are all referable to a single species, the 

 riiom leoniiia of LiuuiS, 1758, bused on the Sea Lion of Lord Alison, which was renamed Plioia t'lrplmntina by Molina, 

 17.XJ, and again renamed Plioca pruboxcidra bj Pdron, in 1810, and of which Flioca Byroni of Desmarest. and also Pliorn 

 Jmoni of the same author (the latter species in part only), and the Mirounga paiayniiica of Gray are synonyms. I am 

 aware, however, that. Peters lias recently proposed the recognition of four species, namely, Cysioplwra Icuiiitia (= Alison's 

 Sea Lion), I', fullchnxlka (= Peruely's Sea Lion), C. proboscidea (ei PiSron), and C keryui Ii'iisis (the Sea Elephant of 

 Kergnclen Inland) He seems not, however, to have arrived at this course by an examination of an extensive suite of 

 specimens from various localities, as he refers in this connection to only a single old male example from Kergnelen 

 Island, lie .seems to have been influenced merely by the varying staienu-uts in respect to size and some other features 

 given by Penicty, Anson, and Peron. His entire presentation of the ease is as follows: "Peniety gibt. von seincm 

 Seelmvcn cine laiie Mahne, cine. Totallange von 'Jo Fuss nnd einem Pnrclimesser der Basis der Eckzahne von I! Zoll an. 

 I , .MIIIS See-Elephanten sullen bis ISO IMISM lang nnd von blangrauer Farbe sein. Vielleicht sind alle die.se Arteu 

 verschieden nud es wiirde tlann tier Name. I', liwuiiiu L. lilossdem AnsnnVchen Seeloxven zn helnssei: sein. wall rend die I'. . 

 fiiliiainiiKi, wie. man die von P. rnety benennen konnte, die. C. jiriilinyi-idia P6ron, die C. ttii/iixtii-oxlr'x Gill der niirdlichen 

 Hi mi.s]ih.ire nnd die von Kerguelenland hesondcren Arten angehoren iinleii. Fiir den letzteren Kail schlage ich vor, 

 dicsr Art /.-('/Y/IK'/I -iixix zu beiie.iiiiniMi." (Monatsb. d. K. P. Akad. \VissenM-h. /.n Berlin l!-'7~', ]i. "i^l-l, fool-noie). 



-"rile Sea Elephants appear !o be exceptional among I lie I'/i/iriilii' in the great disparity of six.e between the sexes, 

 in which, as well as in their breeding habits, they closely resemble the Otaries. Although, unlike the latter, they 

 have not tlio power of using the hind limbs in locomotion on land, and are hence unable to walk, they manage to 

 crawl to a considerable distance from the sea aecoiding to Scaminon, a "half a mile or more." The habits of tho 

 Southern Sea Elephant ( Macrorhlitun laiiiiinia) were long since described by Anson and Pornety, and later by Peron, 

 but. their accounts seem in some respects to be tinged with romance. According to these writers tho males fight 

 desperately for the possession of the females. 



