GENERAL HISTORY. 251 



on les voit en nombre prodigienx sur les rochers cle la bale. 

 Cette espece m'a paru se distinguier de ceux qui frequentent 

 les iles Aleoutiennes ; elle a la corps plus flnet et pins allonge, 

 et la tete plus fine : quant a la couleur, elle passe fortement au 

 brim, tandis que ceux des iles Aleoutiennes son$ d'une couleur 

 plus grise, ont le corps plus rond, les mouvements plus difficiles, 

 la tete plus grosse et plus <paisse; la couleur du poll des 

 moustaches plus noiratre que celui des iles Aleoutiennes." * 



It thus appears that Choris clearly recognized the larger and 

 the smaller Sea Lions of the west coast of North America, and 

 correctly pointed out their more obvious points of external 

 difference. Hence Lesson's name Otaria californiana, founded 

 on Choris's "Lion marin de la Californie," must be considered as 

 applying exclusively to what has till now been commonly known 

 as Zaloplms gillespii. 



Dr. Gill, however, in his "'Prodrome," adopted provisionally 

 Lesson's name (californiana] for the present species, but at the 

 same time asserted its identity with the Arctoceplialus monte- 

 riensis of Gray (1859), and also suggested its probable identity 

 with the so-called Otaria stelleri of Miiller. Peters, a few months 

 later, came to the conclusion that Gill's suggestion was correct, 

 since which time the name stelleri has been universally accepted 

 for the larger northern Hair Seal. The Otaria stelleri of Tem- 

 minck, t formerly supposed by Grayf and also by Peters 

 to include both the Australian Eared Seals (viz, Arctoceplialus 

 cinereus and Zaloplms lolatus), has finally been referred by 

 the latter, after an examination of the original specimens in 

 the Leyden Museum, to the so-called Zaloplms cjillespii.\\ I be- 

 lieve, however, that the skull of the young female figured 

 in Fauna Japonica (pi. xxii, figg. 5 and 6) belongs to some 

 other species. It certainly differs greatly in proportions, as 

 well as in dentition, from the other skulls figured in that work 

 (same plate), and called 0. stelleri. 



The northern Sea Lion having become generally recognized 

 as specifically distinct from the Sea Lion of the southern seas, 

 Dr. Gill, in 1866, separated the two genetically. This had 

 indeed already been done practically by Dr. Gray, inasmuch as 



* Voy. Pittor. aut. du Moiide, Iles A16outieuues, p. 13. 

 t Fauna Japonica, Mam. marins, p. 10. 



t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d series, 1866, vol. xviii, p. 229. 

 Monatsberichte Akad. Berlin, 1866, pp. 272, 276. 



|| Ibid., p. 669. See further ou this point postea, under Zalophus calif or- 

 nianus. 



