8 BULLETIN OF TUE 



as suggested to me by Dr. Gill, being first pointed out by Professor 

 Peters.* The type of Cuvier's genus Arctoceplmlus being in all prob- 

 ability the Arctocephalus Delalaudii Gray, Halarctus of Gill, based 

 on the same type, became, as Gray points out, a synonyme of Arcto- 

 cephalus. 



jSYarly contemporaneously with Gray's above-mentioned critique 

 appeared an able paper on the Otariadce by Professor W. Peters of 

 Berlin.f In this essay Professor Peters reviews the whole family, and 

 describes two species erroneously supposed by him to be new,$ and gave 

 figures of their skulls. The species are all described as Olarice, but are 

 arranged under seven named subgenera or sections.|| which appear in the 

 main to be natural groups. The characters on which these divisions are 

 based are drawn, not from the skull alone, but from all the available 

 sources, the length of the ears, and the presence or absence of under- 

 fur (" Unterwolle ") being for the first time made use of as distinctive 

 characters in determining the lesser groups ; Gray and Gill in their 

 classifications having, with slight exceptions, made use of only the 

 characters furnished by the skull. The specimens of eared seals con- 

 tained in the Berlin Museum are described with considerable minute- 

 ness, and the synonymy of all the species quite fully and carefully 

 presented. Professor Peters agrees with Gray (though at the time of 

 writing he could not have seen his [Gray's] paper) in referring Hul- 

 arctos to ArclocepJ«dns and in reinstating CaUorhinus. The names of 

 all the other genera recognized by both Gill and Gray were adopted by 

 him for the names of his sections, and to which he added two others 

 (A)-cfo/j/toca and Pliocarctos). The arrangement of Professor Peters for 

 the first time separated the hair seals from the fur seals, and to this 

 extent at least an advancement was made towards a natural classi- 

 fication. The fur and hair seals differ markedly from each other in 



* Monatb. d. k. P. Akad. z. Berlin, 1866, p. 271. 



t " [Jber die Ohrenrobben (Seelowen und Seebaren), Otarice, insbesondcre iibcr die 

 in den Sammlungen zu Berlin befindlichen Arten," Monatsberichte der k. P. Akadamic 

 y.n Berlin, 1866, pp. 2(51 -281, with three plates. 



J Olaria Godeffroyi and 0. Pkilippii. 



|| (1.) Otaria, containing 0. jubata. 0. leoninct, 0. Godeffroyi, and O. Byronia; (2.) 

 Phocarcios, containing 0. Hbokeri and Ulloce ; (3.) Arctocephalus, containing O pusilla, 

 0. cinerea, and 0. fnUdaitdica ; (A.) CaUorhinus, containing ursina; (5 ) Eumetopins, 

 containing 0. SlelU ri ; > 6.) Zalophus, containing 0. Gillespii, and 0. lobala ; {'.) Avcto- 

 phoat, containing 0. Philippii. 



