216 FAMILY OTARIID^E. 



/ 



supposed species of Eared Seal erroneously believed by Fabri- 

 cius to exist in the Greenland seas, but who never saw the 

 animal, and described it mainly from what were doubtless fab- 

 ulous reports rife among the Greenlanders. The supposed 

 species is entirely a myth, at leasj so far as having any relation 

 to an Otary. (See, further, Brown, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1868, 

 pp. 357, 358.) 



10. u Otaria aurita, HUMBOLDT." This is unknown to me. 

 Peters, in 1877, referred it doubtfully to Arctocephahis falkland- 

 icus. 



11. Arctoceplialus eulophus, SCOTT, Mam. Recent and Ex- 

 tinct, 1873, 19. Based wholly on the testimony of an " expe- 

 rienced sealer." Not determinable. Habitat. "New Zea- 

 land," "Patagonia," "Juan Fernandez"! (See above, p. 199.) 



Other species, composite in character, are determinable only 

 by reference to the types, among which are Otaria stelleri, Tem- 

 minck, Otaria lamari, Miiller, etc., noticed elsewhere. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The most striking fact in respect to the distribution of the 

 Otariidce is their entire absence from the waters of the North 

 Atlantic. 



As already noticed, the Eared Seals are obviously divisible 

 by the character of the pelage, into two groups, which are com- 

 mercially distinguished as the "Hair Seals" and the "Fur Seals," 

 which are likewise respectively known as the "Sea Lions" and 

 the " Sea Bears." The two groups have nearly the same geo- 

 graphical distribution, and are commonly found frequenting the 

 same shores, but generally living apart. Usually only one spe- 

 cies of each is met with at the same localities, and it is worthy 

 of note, that, with the exception of the coast of California, no 

 naturalist has ever reported the occurrence together of two 

 species of Hair Seals or two species of Fur Seals, although 

 doubtless two species of Hair Seals exist on the islands and 

 shores of Tasmania and Australia, as well as on the Californian 

 coast. 



The Hair and Fur Seals are about equally and similarly 

 represented on both sides of the equator, but they are confined 

 almost wholly to the temperate and colder latitudes. Of the 

 nine species provisionally above recognized, two of the five 

 Hair Seals are northern and three southern; of the four Fur 



