PART I. 

 DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 



Macrorhinus, F. Cuvier. 

 Macrorhine, F. Cuvier, Mini, du Museum, xi. p. 200, 1824. 



In the Narrative of the Voyage of the Challenger it is stated that the Elephant Seal 

 was seen on Marion Island, in the South Atlantic : on Kerguelen Island and on Heard 

 Island -, 1 whilst reference is made to the observations by previous voyagers of the occur- 

 rence of this Seal on the Crozet Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible Island, and Juan 

 Fernandez, which places were also visited by the Challenger. Specimens were secured 

 and sent home both from Kerguelen Island and Heard Island. They were males and 

 females of the great Elephant Seal of the Southern Ocean, and are all I beHeve to be 

 referred to one species, Macrorhinus leoninus. 



Macrorhinus leoninus (Linnaeus) (Pis. L, II., III., IV.). 

 Phoca leonina, Linnfeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, L p. 55, 1766. 



Elephant Seal. 



The specimens of this Seal consisted of (a) the carcase of a well-grown female, (b) the. 

 skin of another female containing bones of the limbs, (c) the complete skeleton of another 

 female, and (d) the skull of a young female from which the brain had been removed, all 

 killed at Christmas Harbour, Kerguelen, January 7, 1874 ; also (e) the skeleton of a well- 

 grown male, (/) the skull and some of the cervical vertebras of a large female shot at Betsy 

 Cove, Kerguelen, January 9, 1874, together with (g) a young skull, apparently of a 

 female, picked up on the same beach ; also (h) the skull of a large male picked up by 

 Professor Moseley on the shore of Heard Island, February 6, 1874. 



External Characters. — I have been able to examine the external characters of the 

 Sea Elephant in the carcase of the well-grown female (a) and the skin of another female (b), 

 both killed on Kerguelen Island and preserved in salt. The carcase with the skin on had 

 been cut into halves immediately behind the pectoral limbs, and the abdominal viscera had 

 been removed, so as to allow it to be packed in a barrel. It is from this specimen that 

 the drawings in PI. I. have been made. When the halves were placed in contact in 



1 Narr. C'hall. Exp., vol. i. pp. 294, 354, 373, 377. 



