6 



tural History' for November, 1843, not knowing that it 

 had before been figured by Messrs. Hombron and Jacqui- 

 not, and referred it to the genus Stenurlii/ii.c/ius, with anew 

 specific name, slightly modifying the character of the genus 

 to contain it. It is certainly more nearly allied to that 

 genus than to P/ioca, to which the French surgeons had 

 referred it, but still it differs so much from it in the con- 

 formation of the skull and the lobing and rooting of the 

 teeth, that it can scarcely be left in it : but the latter pe- 

 culiarity appears to have escaped Mr. Owen's research, for 

 in his generic character of Stenorhynchus he says, " Ante- 

 rior molars with one root, the rest with two roots," while 

 in this genus the three front upper molars are single- 

 rooted, a character by which this genus differs from all the 

 others in the family. 



Stenorhynchus, F. Cuvier. 



Phoca, Home, Blainville. 



Head elongate: ear-conch none externally; muzzle 

 broad, elongate ; muffle hairy to the edge and between 

 the nostrils; nostrils acute; whiskers slightly waved ; face 

 elongate, rather compressed ; muzzle tapering, rather pro- 

 duced and compressed on each side ; orbits moderate ; 

 the petrose portion of the temporal bone rather convex. 



Cutting teeth f, conical, acute, incurved, granular, and 

 with a cutting edge on each side in a regular row, the 

 two outer larger, the upper much larger than the lower, 

 and separated from the canines by a broad space; canines 

 conical, with sharp cutting edges within and on the sides, 

 the upper largest : grinders -14, with moderate roots, sepa- 

 rated fiom the crown by a narrow groove, the crown com- 

 pressed, divided into three elongate lobes, the centre lobe 

 much the largest, longest, and subcylindrical, the anterior 

 and posterior lobes conical, the bases of the lobes are sur- 

 rounded by a sharp-edged ridge, with two small, short, co- 

 nical tubercles on the inner side, the larger one being at 

 the base of the separation of the hinder from the middle 

 lobe : the front grinder in each jaw is rather the thickest, 

 with a single thick conical root, all the rest have two ra- 

 ther diverging roots, divided nearly to the crown ; the 

 hinder tooth in each jaw is rather the smallest. Symphy- 

 sis of the lower jaw short. 



Body tapering behind. The fore limbs moderate, rather 

 elongate. The toes are rather larger than the wrist, and 

 each furnished with a small nearly terminal claw : the 

 hind limbs are rather large, of two nearly equal lobes, des- 

 titute of any claws. The three middle toes small, tapering. 



The fur close-set, short, without any under fur ; hairs 

 flattened, tajiering at the tip to a point. 



Inhab. Antarctic Ocean. 



MacMurtrie, in his translations of Cuvier, erroneously 

 adds to the generic character in the text of the author, 

 " but with single roots ; " this is repeated in the reprint of 

 the American edition published by Orr, i. 98. 



The Sea Leopard. Stenorhynchus leptonyx. 



Plate 3, animal ; plate 4, skull. 



Phoca Leptonyx, Blahiv. Jour. Phys. xci. 288. Desm. 

 Mam. 247, from Home's specimen. Cuv. Oss. Fos. v. 208, 



/. 18,/ 2. F. Cuv. Mem. Mus. xi. 190, t. 13,/. 1. Blainv. 

 Osteoyr. Phoca, t. i. and t. 4,/. Skull, (Mus. Paris). 



Stenorhynchus Leptonyx, F. Cuv. Diet. 8c. N. xxxix. 

 549, i. 44. 



Seal from New Georgia, Home, Phil. Trans. 1822, 240, 

 t. 29, (skull). 



Phoca Homei, Lesson, Did. Class. H. N. xiii. 417. 



The Small-nailed Seal, Hamilton, Nat. Lib. 180, ^ 11, 

 (nails too large). 



Stenorhynchus aux Petits Ongles, Hombr. Sf Jacq. Voy. 

 a Pol Sucl. t. 9. 



Phoca Leopardina, Jameson, IVeddell, Voy. South Pole, 

 22, 24, 134, t. not good. 



Leopard Seal, IVeddell, I. c. 



Otaria? Weddellii, Lesson, Bull. Sci. Nat. vii. 438, 343. 



Stenorhynchus Weddellii, Lesson, Mam. 200. 



Leopard Seal, Hamilton, Nat. Lib. 183, /. 12, (from 

 Capt. Weddell's specimen). 



Grey, paler beneath, with small black spots on the sides 

 of the neck and body, and with a few smaller while spots 

 on the sides ; upper part of the hinder limbs dark, pale- 

 marbled. 



Inhab. Antarctic Ocean, on the packed ice. 



A skull of this species, which was brought from New 

 Georgia by Mr. Kearn, was presented by Mr. Chevalier to 

 the Museum of the College of Surgeons, and was described 

 by M. de Blainville, on his visit to England in 1819, and 

 published under the name of Phoca leptonyx, in the 

 ' Journal de Physique ' (of which he was then the editor), in 

 1820. This skull was also figured by Sir E. Home, in 

 the ' Philosophical Transactions' for 1822. 



M. Blainville afterwards found a skin with its skull from 

 Falkland Islands, in the collection of M. Hautville of Ha- 

 vre, which was afterwards presented to the Paris Museum, 

 and has furnished all the material for the descriptions of 

 this species until the two late Antarctic Voyages. M. F. 

 Cuvier's figure, copied in Mr. Hamilton's work on Seals, 

 is said to be taken from this specimen ; but it is anything 

 but like the slender subcjdindrical animal preserved in the 

 Paris collection: and in the latter work it is represented 

 as having five large claws on each fool ! 



The " Sea Leopard " of Capt. Weddell, described by 

 Professor Jameson in that intrepid navigator's Voyage, 

 and since figured by Mr. Hamilton as a second species of 

 Stenorhynchus, does not appear to differ from the species 

 described by M. de Blainville, but unfortunately I have 

 not been able actually to compare the specimens, or to get 

 from Edinburgh any drawing of the teeth, to make myself 

 quite certain on this point. Lesson's names were only gi- 

 ven from the description in the Voyage above quoted. 



The following notice of this species has been kindly 

 communicated to me by Dr. Frederick Knox, with a ske- 

 leton and part of the viscera, which was caught on the 

 coast of New Zealand. "It was of a dull yellow olive 

 color irregularly spotted. The nostrils opened much after 

 the manner of the Cetacea, in the form of the elongated 

 fissures, Ig- inch from the extremity of the snout, whilst the 

 position and vast size of the pelvic extremities, added to 

 the extreme shortness of the tail, so nearly approached in 

 form and appearance the lateral flanks of the tail in whales. 



