REPORT ON THE SEALS. 87 



Arctocephalus forsteri (Lesson). Fur-Seal of New Zealand and Australia. 



Otaria forsteri, Less., Diet. Class. Hist. Nat., t. xiii. p. 421, 1828. 



„ „ Clark, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1875, p. 675, pis. lxx.-lxxii. 



Mr. J. W. Clark lias given a good description of this Seal 1 from an examination of a 

 skin and several crania, supplemented by drawings of the animal made by Sir James 

 Hector. Amongst other characters he states that the hair is coarse in the young, and 

 black when wet, and with a dense under-fur of a yellow colour. In old animals the 

 hairs are tipped with white ; snout tapering, obliquely truncated, nostrils on sloping- 

 surface. Manus with digits I., II. , III. indicated by prolongations, whilst IV. and V. 

 are indicated merely by a wavy edge. Pes with hair extending as far as nails ; digits 

 II., III., IV. with strong black nails, in I. and V. nails rudimentary. Hinder edge of 

 palate rounded and some distance in front of hamulars, surface of palate flat behind. 



Teeth thirty-six ; the post-canine formula being 531, small and conical, the first four 



upper with an anterior cusp, the 5th tricuspid, the 6th simple ; lower molars all with 

 anterior cusp. 



Mr. Clark is disposed to regard the Fur-Seal from St. Paul's and Amsterdam Island as 

 a variety of Arctocephalus forsteri, and it is not improbable that the specimen from one 

 of these islands, which Professor Peters named Arctocephalus elegans, 2 is of the same 

 species. 



Arctocephalus philippii (Peters). 3 Fur-Seal of Juan Fernandez. 



Otaria Philippii, Peters, Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, May 17, 1866, p. 276, 

 pi. ii. figs, a, b, c, 1867. 



This name has been given by Peters to the Fur-Seal of Juan Fernandez and Masa- 

 fuera. It is a question whether this animal is a distinct species or only Arctocephalus 

 australis. Mr. Allen holds the latter opinion as to its position, and he gives both 

 Arctocephalus philippii and Arctocephalus argentatus as synonyms of Arctocephalus 

 australis. The general form of the skull of both Arctocephalus philippii and Arcto- 

 cephalus argentatus, as figured by Peters, 4 corresponds closely to that of the specimens 

 of Arctocephalus australis described in the first part of this Report, but in these crania 

 the rudimentary anterior cusp of the upper molars is more definite than is represented 

 in Peters' figures. The amount of development of the rudimentary anterior and posterior 

 cusps is, however, without doubt, variable in different crania of the same species of Seal 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., December 7, 1875. 



2 Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, May 18, 1876. 



3 Idem, op. cit., May 17, 1866. 



* Peters described and figured as Otaria argentata {Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, November 9, 

 1871) a skull from Chili. 



