230 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



that the jaws and teeth, which had been mounted in 

 the skin, were sold by the Museum to the Royal College 

 of Surgeons in 1809, the specimen appears to have been 

 destroyed early in the last century. The aforesaid jaws 

 and teeth are still preserved in the museum of the College 

 of Surgeons. 



Although many years later a female skin, presented by 

 the Admiralty, was mounted and exhibited, from the date 

 of the destruction of Lord Anson's specimen the British 

 Museum till quite recently had no example of either skin 

 or skeleton of an adult male of this giant seal to show 

 the public. The deficiency has been made good by the 

 generosity of Mr. Walter Rothschild, and the mounted 

 skin and skeleton of two nearly adult males are now 

 exhibited in the same case. Unfortunately the taxidermist 

 has not been as successful as he might have been in the 

 mounting of the skin ; but nevertheless the specimens 

 suffice to convey an adequate idea of the huge bulk of 

 the creature and the leading peculiarities of its form. 



It may be mentioned here that Anson's figure and 

 description afforded to Linnaeus his only knowledge of the 

 species, and upon this evidence was established his Phoca 

 leonina, the specific title being the equivalent of Anson's 

 "sea-lyon." As the real sea-lions are totally different 

 animals — eared seals, in fact — it is a great pity that this 

 name was ever given, but, as being the earliest, it has to 

 stand, and cannot be replaced, as proposed by some writers, 

 by the more appropriate elephantina. As the elephant- 

 seal differs very widely from the common seal and its 

 immediate relatives, it could not, of course, with the advance 

 of zoological science, be suffered to remain in the same 

 genus, and it accordingly now typifies a group by itself 

 under the name of Macrorhinus leoninus. 



