212 FAMILY OTARIID.E. 



8. Arctocephalus aiitarcticus (Thuuberg) Allen. 



Plioca ursina, FORSTER, and in part of many early "writers. 



1 Plioca pusilla, SCHREBER, Sa'uget., iii, [1776?], 314 (=Le Petit Phoque r 

 Buffou, based on a young Fur Seal, from an unknown locality, 

 but supposed to Lave come from India or the Levant,* but as no- 

 Seals exist there, and as many animals Avhich, in former years, 

 purported to have been brought from India were found to be 

 really African, some late writers have assumed that Buffou's- 

 "Petit Phoque" must have been also African, but the pertinence 

 of the name pusilla to the African Fur Seal is not beyond reason- 

 able doubt). t Also of ERXLEBEX, GMELIX, and others. 



f Otaria pusilla, DESMAREST, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Xat., xxv, 1827, 602 (based 

 on the same). 



Otaria pttsilla, PETERS, Mouatsb. Akad. Berlin, 1866, 271, 671 (name adopted 

 from Schreber). 



Arctocephalus pnniUm*, PETERS, Mouatsb. Akad. Berlin, 1877, 506. 



f " Plwca parva, BODDAERT, Elenchus Auiin., pi. Ixxvii" (=- Buffou's Petit 

 Phoque, as above). 



Plioca aittarctica, THUXBERG, Mdm. Acad. St.-Petersb., iii, 1811,222. 



.trctofi'jilialiiH antarclifiis, ALLEX, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., ii, 1870, 45. 

 CIIAY, Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, 17. 



f Gloria pi-roni, DESMAREST, Mam., 1820, 250 (= Otaria pusilla, Desmarest, 

 as above). 



Otaria pcroni, " SMITH, South African Quart. Journ. ii, 62." 



any four-footed animal by bending the fore-ilippers and turning the hind- 

 flippers forward as here represented [in some sketches accompanying these 

 notes, but not here reproduced]. They galloped along the sandy shore at 

 quite good speed. In going over the rocks they tumbled about in every way 

 but would still manage to get along with surprising rapidity. I saw many 

 lying on the shore asleep, and there were hundreds more in the water near 

 the shore. On approaching within a few feet of them they would come 

 towards me as if they had been tamed. From a projecting rock I watched 

 their movements in the water a beautiful sight. They would roll over 

 under water, turning complete somersaults, swim on their backs or sides, 

 and in almost every position would glide about in the most graceful manner 

 around the rock on which I was sitting, looking up at me. They often put 



their noses together in the most affectionate way When annoyed 



by flies alighting on their noses they would open their mouths widely and 

 snap at them as dogs do. 



"Just back of the beach, and separated from the ocean by a row of man- 

 grove trees, was a lagoon of brackish water in which were a number of 

 Seals, while lying about on the border of the lagoon were many skeletons of 

 those that had died." 



* Buifon says: " .... on nous a assure" que 1'individu quo nous avous vu 

 venoit des Indes, & il est au moins tres-probable qu'il venoit des mers du 

 Levant." Hist. Nat., tome xiii, p. 341. 



tGray says: "It is as likely to have come from the Falkland Islands as 

 from the Cape, as the French had traffic with Les lies Malouines, as they 

 call them." Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, p. 19. 



