200 Transactions. — Zoology. 



recent memoir, however, Mr. J. W. Clark (Proc. Z.S. Lond., 

 1884, p. 188) gives a careful description of the skins and more 

 salient features of the skull of several specimens of the grey 

 sea-lion from the Seal Eocks, near Port Stephens, New South 

 Wales, which animal he identifies with the Otaria cincrca of 

 Peron." On consulting Mr. Clark's paper, one is surprised to 

 discover that he is dealing with four stuffed specimens, all 

 with underfur (Peron's seal heing undoubtedl}^ a hair-seal), 

 with a not quite full-grown skeleton, and a skin and a skull of 

 an animal of about the same age which had been taken at the 

 same time and place as those of the four stuffed specimens. 

 From the descriptions given by Mr. Clark, the author of the 

 present paper is convinced that they all belong to the same 

 species as the New Zealand fur-seal {Arctocephalus forstcrl. 

 Lesson), for they cannot be Peron's cincrea, inasmuch as it 

 was a hair-seal. There is at present no evidence that there is 

 a grey hair-seal of New Zealand ; and the author agrees with 

 Mr. Allen, in his " History of the North American Pinnipeds," 

 that it would be well, on account of the uncertainty of 

 identifying the species Peron meant to apply that name to, to 

 discard it altogether. The author is personally inclined to 

 believe that Peron applied the term to a female of Eumctopias 

 hookeri, which is grey or almost w^hite in colour. In the New 

 Zealand region, therefore, there are only two eared seals — one 

 of them a hair -seal {Eumeto2nas hookeri), inhabiting the 

 Auckland Islands, and, so far as the author can discover, 

 never yet taken in New Zealand ; and a fur-seal {Arcto- 

 cephalus forsteri), which is common on both coasts of the 

 South Island, frequents the Chatham Islands, and in- 

 habits also the Seal Eocks, near Port Stephens, New 

 South Wales, but unrecorded (so far as the author knows) 

 from the Auckland Islands with any certainty. The great 

 confusion among the species has arisen from the marked 

 difference existing between the young at different ages and 

 different seasons, and between the sexes, in their external 

 appearance, and the great changes that take place in their 

 bony framework from youth to adult life and in old age. The 

 same species has been described by a different name under 

 each of these conditions, and it is matter for little surprise 

 that the synonymy of the various species is as confused as it 

 well can be, and is a study in itself to unravel. 



The sea-leopard {Ogmarimis leptonyx), so common on our 

 shores, is not an eared seal — ^that is, it has no external ears— 

 and is placed in a distinct family — the Phocidae — of the fin- 

 footed carnivorous animals, and is the third and remaining 

 species of seal belonging to the New Zealand fauna. 



