CYSTO > MIROUNGA. 545 



Lower California ai atagonia. They are enormous creatures 

 rivaling the Walrus i mlk and stated to reach twenty-five to thirty 

 feet in length. This great size, however, is found only in the animal 

 from Heard 's Island near the Patagonian coast. Their circum- 

 ference is said to reach eighteen feet. Probably the individual varia- 

 tion among them is very great, and the females are much smaller 

 than the males. The young and the females have no proboscis, 

 but the males have one that in moments of excitement can be elongated 

 to the extent of twenty inches or more. Formerly it is probable 

 that these animals were quite numerous in the localities they fre- 

 quented, but incessant slaughter has so reduced their numbers that 

 the northern species is even now practically extinct, and the southern 

 one has disappeared from some of its customary haunts. It is to 

 be much regretted that man's insatiable greed is gradually extermi- 

 nating the more valuable animals from the earth. 



Subfam. I. Cystophorinse. 

 1O8. Miroimga. 



Mirounga Gray, in Griff., Cuvier's Anim. King., v, 1827, p. 179. 



(Part.) Type Phoca proboscidea Peron = Phoca leonina Linnaeus. 



Macrorhinus F. Cuv., Diet. Scien. Nat., xxxix, 1826, p. 552. 



(nee Latreille Coleopt. 1825.) 



Rhinophoca Wagl., Nat. Syst. Amph., 1830, p. 27. 

 Morunga Gray, List Ost. Spec. Brit. Mus., 1847, p. 33. 

 Teeth small, one-rooted; hind feet without nails; nose of adult 

 male elongated into a tubular proboscis capable of dilatation and 

 extension; palate short, emarginate. 



511. angustirostris (Macrorhinus}, Gill, Proc. Chicago Acad. Scien., 



1866, p. 33. Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 359. 

 ELEPHANT SEAL. 



Type locality. St. Bartholomew's Bay, Lower California, Mexico. 



Geogr. Distr. Formerly from Cape Lazaro. Mexico, to Point 

 Reyes, coast of California. Now practically extinct. 



Genl. Char. Superior outline of skull irregularly arched from 

 the lambdoidal suture to end of the nasals; snout of male lengthened, 

 narrowed at end, widest behind last molar and equal to three and a 

 half times the total length of skull; squamosal truncate above the 

 meatus auditorius' ';< * *", the posterior sinus semi-oval, 



the bottom being mi:? jet ween the snout and the line 



of the jugular fo ma- deeply incurved, line of molars 



