Zoology.'] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. \_Mammalia. 



The bare portion of snout below 2 inches long, and 1 inch 10 lines 

 in greatest width ; the width of portion between the nostrils being 

 only half an inch, and 1 inch 3 lines long. The middle nail of hind 

 foot is 1 inch long, but from its tip to edge of the cartilaginous fin 

 is 3^ inches. Mr. Clark states (1. c, p. 662) that the corresponding 

 nail in the New Zealand 0. Forsteri is only its own length from 

 the edge, while suggesting that this distance may be a specific 

 character. 



The nasal cartilage here figured from a young skull is more 

 complex than that of 0. Forsteri figured by Mr. Clark (Zool. Jour. 

 1875, p. 665). The upper fold [a) is, like it, wider in the centre, 



but has a shallow dividing furrow extend- 

 ing from the middle of the lower side 

 obliquely upwards and forwards. The 

 lower fold {b) and the hinder one, or bulla, 

 as Mr. Clark calls it (c), are both as flexible 

 as the upper fold, and further differ in the 

 fold {b) having a circinate or crozier-shaped 

 backward defined prolongation on its upper 

 anterior end. The ligament (d) is alike in 

 both. In this young skull, 6 ins. long, the 

 described cartilages are 1 inch 2^ lines long. 



The bare parts of the snout and flippers, in the living state, 

 are black ; and the nostrils angulated. The general colour of the 

 surface is yellowish grizzly brown ; ears lighter, with black tip ; 

 middle of breast and belly darker brown ; under-fur light chestnut- 

 brown, darkest on belly. 



The snout of the adult male is not nearly so slender, tapering, 

 and obliquely truncated as in the New Zealand 0. Forsteri^ as 

 figured by Mr. Clark and Dr. Hector (Zool. Jour., Dec. 7, 1875, 

 pp. 660 and 663) ; and in the females and young the snout is more 

 bluntly rounded, and the nostrils more nearly terminal than in the 

 adult. The outline figures I give now are reduced from the life- 

 sized drawings made from specimens before being skinned, and can 

 be compared with the corresponding views given by Mr. Clark of 

 the 0. Forsteri. Instead of the great concavity figured vertically 



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