as to deceive any one but a comparative anatomist. The 

 specimen was shot and captured in Evans Bay, Port Ni- 

 cholson, in November, 1843. The skiu was hairy. The 

 stomach of the seal contained numerous fish-bones, a few 

 feathers (gulls'), and some considerable portions of a pale 

 green, broad-leaved, marine Fucus : thousands of a small, 

 hard, round, white worm (parasitical) pervaded all parts of 

 the intestines. The intestinal tube measured 71 feet, 10 

 inches : caput cajcum, 1 inch, 9 lines : diameter of small 

 intestines, 1 inch ; of large intestines, 1 inch, 6 lines. Li- 

 ver weighed 14 lbs.: kidneys, 2 lbs. each: spleen, 1 tb. : 

 heart, 6 tbs. The arch of the aorta gave off an extremely 

 short innominata, which divided it into a right carotid and 

 subclavian, and left carotid ; the left subclavian came off 

 separately; it resembles Tiedemann's third variety, PI. III. 

 (copy published in Edinburgh). Teeth, -f-f-J-g =32 : the 

 two lower middle incisors appear peculiar ; the arrange- 

 ment at least was new to me. Vertebrae : — cranial, 4 ; 

 cervical. 7 ; dorsal, 14; lumbar, 6 ; sacral, 3 ; coccygial, 

 13;= 47." 



Dr. Frederick Knox called it the " Sea Bear," so that 

 this is probably the animal so named by Pollack and other 

 authors, which has caused Phoca ursina to be included in 

 the New Zealand Fauna. 



Mr. Owen [Ann. N. H 1843, 831), appears to think that 

 this animal is one-coloured, for he says the Sea Leopard 

 is distinguished from it " by the spotted hide." 



Leptonyx, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist, not Swainson. 



Head flattened. Muzzle broad, rather short, rounded ; 

 muffle hairy between and to the edge of the nostrils ; nos- 

 trils ovate ; whiskers compressed, slightly waved. Ears, 

 no external conch. 



Skull slightly depressed, expanded behind ; muzzle ra- 

 ther short, broad, high above ; orbits rather large : the pe- 

 trose portion of the temporal bone convex, hemispherical. 



Cutting teeth ^, conical, rather recurved, those of the 

 upper jaw largest; the middle in each jaw smaller; the 

 outer upper much larger. Canines 4t) l^^i'ge) conical, 

 curved, rather compressed, upper largest. Grinders -|- 3-) 

 moderate, rather far apart, parallel to the edge of the jaw, 

 compressed, with subcentral, conical, prominent tubercle ; 

 the second, third and fourth, in the more perfect speci- 

 mens, with a small conical tubercle on the hinder edge, 

 and a sharp edged ridge round the inner side of the base. 

 The front grinder in each jaw smaller, and with a single 

 conical root, the rest all 2-rooted nearly to the crown. 

 Lower jaw slender, with a short symphysis in front, and 

 narrow, without any angle at the hinder part of the lower 

 edge. 



Fore feet small, elongate, triangular, hairy above and 

 below, with five graduated, distant, marginal claws : hind 

 feet moderate ; the two marginal toes largest, rounded at 

 the end ; claws small, rudimentary, two middle largest. 



Fur short, adpressed, without any under fur ; hair slen- 

 der, tapering, slightly flattened. 



The skull of this genus resembles, in many respects, 

 Cuvier's fig\u'c of a skull of Phoca bicolor; but it diflfers 

 from it in all the grinders being ]jlaced more longitudi- 

 nally, and in the lower jaw being slender, and without any 



angle on the hinder part of the lower edge. It is far more 

 nearlv allied to that genus than Ste)iorhyiichu!s, to which 

 Mr. Owen [Ann. N. H. 1843, 331, 332) has referred it; 

 observing that his Sten. serriden.'s (our Lobodon cancri- 

 ■vora) shows modifications of the molar teeth which would 

 give it a better claim to subgeneric distinction than the 

 Sleii. WeddelUi (which he observed is the type of the 

 subgenus Leptony.v of Mr. Gray) has been supposed to 

 possess ; — an observation not borne out by the specimen. 

 But Mr. Owen made the remark, and drew up his specific 

 character, without having seen the teetli ; for the skull was 

 not then removed from the skin, and the specimens in the 

 British Museum — the only ones then known — were 

 stuffed with their mouth nearly closed. 



Mr. Swainson, in 1832, applied the name oi Leptonyx to 

 a genus of birds; and in 1837, the same name to a second: 

 but the former had before been named Pteroptychos, and 

 the latter Coryphospiza, so that the name may still be used 

 for the Seal. 



This animal is easily known from Stenorhynclius by the 

 shortness of the wrist, and the triangular form of the fore 

 feet, being intermediate in this respect between that genus 

 and Ommatophoca. 



The False Sea Lkopard. Leptonyx Weddellii. 

 Plate 5, animal. Plate 6, skull. 



Leptonyx Weddellii, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1836 (not 

 the synonymes). 



Fulvous, with the firont of the back, and a line down the 

 back, blackish grey : whiskers brown, tapering. 



Female and young blackish grey above ; sides with a 

 series of longitudinal yellowish spots. 



Inhab. South Seas, — Santa Cruz. Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. 



This Seal was first described by me from two specimens 

 sent to the British Museum, by Capt. Fitzroy, R.N., when 

 employed, with Capt. P. P. King, R.N. on the survey of 

 the South American continent. I was then led to believe 

 that it was the Sea Leopard of Weddell, which induced 

 me to name it after that intrepid navigator; but I now find 

 that the S/eiiorhynchus Leptonyx is the animal so called 

 by the whalers, and therefore the one intended by Capt. 

 Weddell, and consequently the references to his descrip- 

 tion nuist be erased, and referred to the Stenorhynclius. 



We have a third specimen in the Museum, which was 

 brought home by the Antarctic Expedition. The skin is 

 not in a very good state, and is of a reddish colour, but 

 this is probably produced by the staining of the blood. In 

 proportions and skull it exactly agrees with the two before 

 described ; and it is the skull of this specimen, as being 

 most perfect, that is here figured. 



Ommatophoca. 



Head short, broad; ears small, with no external conch; 

 muzzle very short, rounded ; muffle hairy between and to 

 the edge of the nostrils ; nostrils ovate : whiskers taper- 

 ing, conical. 



Skull depi'essed, expanded behind ; orbits very large ; 

 muzzle very short, broad, truncated in front, high behind ; 

 petrose portion of the temporal bone convex. 



Cutting teeth |, small, conical, .sharply recurved at the 



