REPORT ON THE SEALS. 63 



OgMORHININ.E. 



Anterior nares in front of the infraorbital foramina ; beak moderately prolonged 



in front of opening. Either a postorbital process or a mere rudiment of one ; premaxilla 



may or may not articulate with nasal. Horizontal part of premaxilla moderate. Floor 



of orbit sloping back to become continuous with the thin posterior border of zygomatic 



root of maxilla ; infraorbital foramen opening into floor. Greatest width of palate behind 



last molar and almost on line with posterior border of zygomatic root of maxilla. 



Zygomatic process of maxilla prolonged back for some distance below malar. Inner wall 



of orbit defective. Basi-occipital sometimes perforated mesially. Pterygoids horizontal 



or almost horizontal in direction and with slit or foramen between upper border and base 



• 2 — 2 1—1 5—5 



of skull. Dentition — in. , c. , p. c. - —, = 32. Post-canines two-rooted except 



2-2 1-1 F 5-5' 1 



the first. First and fifth toes of hind foot longer than the rest. 



This subfamily contains the genera Ogmorhinus, Leptonychotes, Ommatophoca, 1 and 



Monachus. 



Ogmorhinus} 



Stenorhinque, F. Cuvier, Mem. du Museum, t. xi. p. 190, 1824. 



Ogmorhinus, Peters, Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, p. 393, footnote, 1875. 



Premaxilla does not reach the nasal. Cranial width may or may not be greater 

 than the interzygomatic width ; nasals ankylosing together early. Anterior nares oblique. 

 Hard palate emarginate posteriorly, transverse part of palato-maxillary suture opposite 

 penultimate post-canine ; posterior border of vomer distinctly visible in palatal cleft, 

 and articulating only slightly with vomerine crest of palate. Postorbital process rudi- 

 mentary or absent. Basi-occipital not perforated, par-qccipital process present. Wall of 

 auditory meatus short, foramen opens outwards ; groove between tympanic and mastoid 

 temporal. 



1 Dr. J. E. Gray has given, in vol. i. of the Zoology of the Voyage of the " Erebus" and "Terror," figures of the 

 palatal aspect and the profile of the skull of the following seals : — Stenorhynchus leptonyx and Lobodon carcinophaga, 

 Leptonyx weddelli, Ommatophoca rossi, Macrorhinus leoninus, Eumetopias hookeri, Otaria julata, and the palate and teeth of 

 Arctocephalus hiatus. 



2 I wish to express my obligations to Mr. William E. Hoyle of the Challenger Commission for having revised and 

 verified the references to the names given to the various species of Seals described in the text. In the course of this 

 revision, which was not made until after Part I, of the Report had been sent to press, he pointed out to me that the 

 names Stenorhynchus and Macrorhinus have both been applied to different animals. The name Stenorhynchus was given 

 to a Brachyurous Crustacean so far back as 1818 (Lamarck, Hist. Nat. des Anim. sans Vert), and is regularly in use at 

 the present time (see Report by E. J. Miers on the Brachyura, part xlix., Zool. Chall. Exp., vol. xvii.). Taking as a 

 precedent Gill's name Leptonychotes, as a modification of Leptonyx, it would have been better to have modified Stenorhynchus 

 into Stenorhynchotes, and thus to obtain a generic name which, whilst distinctive, would have been a less departure from 

 the name most commonly in use than the generic term Ogmorhinus proposed in 1875 by Peters. Macrorhinus was used 

 in 1825 by Latreille (Earn. Nat. du Regne Animal), to designate a genus of Coleoptera, whilst F. Cuvier in the 

 previous year had applied to the Elephant Seal the name " Macrorhine." Thus the name as applied to the Elephant 

 Seal has the priority, and it rests with the entomologists to change the name of the Beetle. 



