were prinled in the supplementary volumes of Buffon's Natural History, and form the most complete and best account 

 we have yet had of the history of these species. 



Peron and Lesueur, in their record of Baudin's voyage, indicated some Seals found in the South Sea, and give 

 fuller details of the Sea-Elephant, they having been so fortunate as to fall in with some males of that species, but the 

 Natural History of the voyage was never published, so that we are indebted to Cuvicr (Oss. Foss.) for the description 

 of the only Seal they brought home, which ajipears to have been the Fur Seal of commerce. 



In the Zoology of Captain Duperrey's ' Voyage of the Coquille,' a Seal is figured, under the name of Phoca Mo- 

 lossina, but the skull and skin, now in the Paris Museum, as Nilsson has correctly observed, is only the young Sea- 

 Lion's. In the ' Voyage of the Astrolabe ' two other southern Seals are figured, one called Otaria cinerea, Peron, which 

 appears to be the Fur Seal of commerce, and the Otaria australis, which is very like my Arctocephalus lohatus, 

 described from a skull in Mr. Brookes' collection many years previously. It is to be regretted that the figures here 

 referred to, especially of the skull, are so bad as to be utterly useless for the determination of the species without com- 

 parison of the original specimens. 



In the French ' Voyage to the South Pole,' now publishing, figures are given of the Sea-Leopard and the common 

 White Antarctic Seal, which they name Phoca carcinophaya, the two most common species found everywhere in these 

 regions on the packed ice. 



Lastly, Mr. W. Hamilton has given an account of the Seals and other marine Mammalia, in Sir W. Jardine's 

 'Naturalists' Library,' which contains a carefully compiled account of these animals, and some original figures from the 

 specimens in the Edinburgh and Liverpool Museums : but unfortunately, Mr. Stewart, the draughtsman, has been more 

 intent on giving them an artistic effect than on attending to their zoological characters. Thus, some which should 

 have no claws on their hind feet, have large ones, and sometimes one too many for any beast ; and the toe-membranes 

 of all the Eared Seals or Otaries are represented as hairy instead of bald. 



The same author has given an account of the Fur Seal in the ' Annals of Natural History,' which he considers as 

 different from the Sea Bear of Forster and other South-Sea navigators : according to Dr. Hooker, the Fur Seals rarely 

 exceed 3^ or 4 feet in length. 



As it was necessary to study the species of the whole family the better to understand those of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, I shall proceed, before I enter into a more detailed description of the southern species brought home by this 

 expedition, to give the condensed results of my labour, in the form of a Synopsis of the Genera and Species of Seals, 

 which will at the same time be useful in showing the systematic distribution of the southern species. 



I. — Synopsis of the Species of Seals. 



Sect. I.— Grinders two-rooted ; ears none : toes simple, of ** Hie \st front grinder in each jaw single-rooted, the 



the fore-feet short, of the hindfeet unequal, the outer rest 2-rooted. 



on each side longest, the middle shortest, the palms o. Stenorhvnchus, F. Cuv. 



and soles hairy. g^.^^^^ elongate ; muzzle elongate ; grinders compressed. 



Sub-family 1. Stenorhynchina. — Cutting teeth | ; hind- with three cylindrical elongate lobes, the centre one longest 



feet nearly clairless ; mujfle hairy to the edge and be- 3-Ji" largest. 



tiveen the nostrils ; fore-feet triangular; wrist very I. Stenovhync\n\s\e\:>tonyyi, F. Cuv. Mem. Mus. x'l. 191, 



short. t. 13,/ 1. Phoca leptonyx, Bl. Cuv. Ham. N. L. t. 11. 



P. Homeii, Lesson. P. Weddcllii, Le.ison. P. Leopardina, 



* The 1st, 2nd and Srd front upper, and the 1st front Jameson. Sea Leopard, Weddell. Hamilton, t. 12. 



lower grinder single-rooted, the rest 2-rooted. Inhab. South Sea. 



1. LoBODON. 3. h¥.FTONYX, Gray, not Swains. 



Skull elongate ; muzzle elongate ; grinders rather com- Skull broad, depressed behind ; muzzle short, broad ; 



pressed, with a large lobe in front, and three lobes behind grinders subcompressed, with a small, subccntral, conical 



the larger central one. tubercle, and a very small posterior one ; the lower jaw 



1 . Lobodon carciuophaga. n=i""o^ behind, without any hinder angle ; fore-feet clawed. 



Phoca carcinoi)haga, H. S( J. Voy. Pol. Sud. t. Ste- 1. Leptonyx Weddellii, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist, (not the 



norhvnchus serridens, Owen. synon.) 



luhab. Southern Ocean. ' Inhab. Southern Ocean. 



