MAMMALIA. 



I.— THE SEALS OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 



Thk Seals have been long considered as one of the most difficult families of Mammalia, partly on account of their 

 great resemblance to one another in external characters, and the changes which they undergo during their growth in 

 colour and form, but more especiallj' on account of the difficulty of observing them in their natural habitations. 



The labours of M. de Blainville, the two brothers Cuvier, and especially of Professor Nilsson of Lund, have done 

 much to elucidate the characters of the European species and those frequenting the eastern coast of North America, 

 — the species found on the west coast of North America being still laiown by the descriptions of Stellar only ; indeed 

 many naturalists have been inclined to consider them as identical with those found in the southern part of the Pacific 

 Ocean, believing that the species migrate from one extremity of the world to the other ; though we have the testimony 

 of all voyagers that seals are never found between the equatorial line and 21° north latitude, a fact first stated by 

 Dampier (Voy. p. 90). 



The Seals of the southern hemisphere have not been so well studied, from the want of sufficient materials. Cuvier, 

 when he wrote the 'Ossemens Fossiles,' possessed only eight skulls, belonging to four species, (viz.- — 1. Phoca lepto- 

 nyx ; 2. P. elephantina ; 3. P. pusilla ; 4. P. leonina ?), but as several of these had been brought home without the 

 skins, he could only refer them doubtfully to established species. Indeed, almost the only knowledge that we have 

 of these animals is derived from the obsei-vations of Cook, and the Forsters, who accompanied that intrepid navigator 

 as naturalists ; and the materials which they brought home were well collated together by Pennant, in his ' History of 

 Quadrupeds,' a work of very extraordinary merit considering the date of its publication. To be sure that was a time 

 when England might fairly be described as taking, as she should do, a lead in scientific Zoology ; and it is yet a 

 period which has not been fairly estimated by the modern school of Zoologists, who, at the opening of the continent 

 after the war, appear to have been so dazzled by the brilliant progress made by the Professors in France named by 

 Napoleon, that they appear to have overlooked the fact that these men were only following in the footsteps of Pennant, 

 Latham,* Solander, the Forsters, Fabricius, and others, who were either natives of or had been fostered by the sci- 

 entific men of this countrj', as Linneus followed in the footsteps of Ray. 



Besides the particulars given by Cook and Forster in the account of their Voyages, Forster communicated to Bufibn 

 the figures of two of the species he had observed, accompanied by details of their organization and habits, which 



* I may mention as a proof of the indefatigable energy and industry of Dr. Latham, that he commenced at the age of ninety a new edition 

 of his ' Synopsis,' in which he arranged all the more recently discovered species, with references to where they were described, and adopted some 

 of the modem genera. I have this work in my library, in three 4to volumes, all written in the dear old man's own hand. Such was his interest 

 in science, that, having expressed a desire to procure a copy of the drawing of his Butool Pheasant, to send to India, he, then in his ninety-se- 

 cond year, copied the drawing and etched it, that 1 might have the impressions I required. He continued as much attached to the study of 

 .Antiquities and Architecture as to Natural History, to the end of his long and arduous life. 



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