28 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Seals 



of Arctocephalus falklandicus, " about 3 feet long, taken at the 

 mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where they were formerly com- 

 mon, on the Islas de los lobos" — that is, " the islands of the 

 Sea-wolves." 



On comparing Dr. Burmeister's figure of the teeth with 

 those of the skulls of the different Sea-bears, I can only come 

 to the conclusion, from the size of the lobes of the crowns 

 of the teeth, that this figure represented the young 0. Hookeri ; 

 and therefore if this animal is found at the mouth of the Rio 

 de la Plata and at New Zealand, there is no reason why it 

 should not be found at the Straits of Magellan, especially when 

 we consider the enormous number of the southern seals that 

 are collected both for their skins and oil, and that several are 

 recorded as having been found in localities where they are no 

 longer to be found, or at least not in sufficient abundance to be 

 " fished for;" and as I know no other Otaria of a pale yellowish 

 colour, I am still inclined to regard the Eared Seal of Pennant 

 as a synonym of 0. Hookeri. 



Mr. J. W. Clark gives an abstract of the history of the 

 Auckland Islands from Mr. Shillinglaw's introduction to, and 

 extracts from, his publication of Captain Musgrave's Journal 

 of the wreck of the ' Grafton ' and 20 months' stay on the 

 island : an edition of this book was published first at Melbourne 

 in 1865 ; and it was reprinted in London in 1866, with the 

 introduction last. Mr. Clark concludes that there are two 

 species of Seals in the Aucklands: — (1) a large Black Seal; and 

 (2) the Sea-lion, called the Tiger Seal because some of the 

 females are spotted (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 753). Mr. Clark iden- 

 tifies the Sea-lion of Musgrave with 0. Hookeri. It is to be 

 observed that the males and females of Otaria Hookeri in the 

 British Museum are plain-coloured and yellowish, and that, of 

 the two specimens in the museum at Paris examined by Mr. 

 Clark, brought from the Auckland Islands, the female is of a 

 uniform yellow colour ; so that I have a suspicion that Captain 

 Musgrave, who has only a sealing captain's notion about the 

 species of seals, confounded another seal with Hooker's Sea- 

 bear, more especially as we have authority for believing that the 

 Spotted Sea-leopard {Stenorhynchus leptonyx) is found in the 

 Aucklands, and we have in the British Museum the skull of 

 this seal from New-Zealand, presented by Dr. Knox, and it 

 is a seal which has a most extensive distribution in the Ant- 

 arctic and Southern seas. I know no species of Sea-lion or 

 Sea-bear that has a spotted fur ; whereas the Earless or True 

 Seals are very often more or less spotted or eyed, and the Sea- 

 leopard is particular among them for being distinctly spotted. 



