MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 85 



of the old females is much darker than the other, while similar variations 

 are seen in the males. 



General Remarks. — The northern sea bear ( Callorhinus ursinus) 

 was first made known by Steller in 1751, under the name of Ursus 

 marinus. On his visit to Kamtchatka and its neighboring islands, in 

 1742, he met with these animals in great numbers at Behring's Island, 

 where he spent several weeks among them, and carefully studied their 

 habits and anatomy. On his return to St. Petersburg he published a 

 detailed and accurate description of them in his valuable essay entitled 

 De Bestiis Marinis, in the Transactions of the St. Petersburg Academy 

 for the year 1749.* This valuable memoir has furnished nearly all the 

 information concerning the northern sea bears we have hitherto had. 

 Steller's account, occupying twenty-eight quarto pages, gave not only 

 a detailed description of its anatomy, with an extensive table of meas- 

 urements, but also of its remarkable habits, and figures of the animals. 

 His description of its habits has been largely quoted by Buffon and 

 Pennant, and by Hamilton, in his history of the "Marine Amphibia." f 

 Kraschenninikow, in his History of Kamtchatka, \ under the name of 

 the "sea cat," also gave a lengthy account of its habits, apparently 

 mainly from Steller's notes ; but it embraces a few particulars not given 

 in the De Bestiis 3farinis. Buffon, followed by Pennant, and most 

 general writers for half a century, confounded the northern sea bear 

 with the southern sea bear, they combining the history of the two as 

 that of one species. When specimens of both the northern and south- 

 ern fur seals had been compared in Europe, their specific distinctness 

 became fully recognized, and in 1859 they were even genetically sepa- 

 rated by Dr. J. E. Gray, since which time they have been generally 

 recognized as belonging to different genera. In color, size, and the 

 character of the pelage they are undoubtedly closely related, as they 

 seem to be also in habits, but they differ greatly in the form of the 

 facial portion of the skull, and hence in physiognomy, through the much 

 greater breadth of the muzzle in the northern species, and its abruptly 

 rising and convex nose. 



* Novi Commcntaria2 Acidemias Petropolitanre, Vol. XI, pp 331-359, pi. xv. 1751. 

 t Naturalist's Library, Mammalia, Vol. Vlh, 1839. 



| History of Kamtchatka (English edition), translated from the Russian by James 

 Grieve, M. D., pp. 120- 130, 1764. 



