276 Miscellaneous. 



and of reproducing themselves. This abortive daughter-colony con- 

 stitutes the male element, endowed with movement and still en- 

 joying a certain activity. Soon the vegetative cell becomes incapable 

 of segmenting ; it can only increase in volume : it is the female 

 element deprived of motion, which requires, in order to rei)roduce 

 itself, to fuse with the male element. 



Sexuality in VoJvox appears then by degrees, the male sex ap- 

 pearing before the female sex as fast as the species exhausts itself 

 by asexual reproduction. 



We must compare this fact with what takes place in the animal 

 kingdom in the animals which are reproduced by parthenogenesis. 

 Professor Balbiani has observed that certain Aphides and the Phyl- 

 loxerce degenerate when they are reproduced during a certain time 

 by parthenogenesis ; their genital and digestive organs tend to become 

 atrophied. There is a time when the parthenogenetic individuals thus 

 degraded give origin first to male individuals, then to female indivi- 

 duals, which require to be fecundated to reproduce new partheno- 

 genetic individuals. — Comptes Uendus, July 24, 1876, p. 287. 



On the Fur-Secd of the Islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam. 

 By Prof. W. Peteks. 



Last year (Monatsberichte, 1875, p. 393) I had the honour of 

 making a communication to the Academy upon a fur-seal from 

 Kerguelen's Land which constitutes a species with a peculiar cranial 

 structure. It was described from a complete young female specimen 

 and the skin of an adult male. I remarked that unfortunately 

 there was no skull with the latter ; but I had the less doubt as to its 

 belonging to the same species, as the coloration was similar and the 

 place of origin appeared to be the same, seeing that it was packed 

 in the same vessel with sea-elephants from Kerguelen's Land with- 

 out any special note. Nevertheless, from a communication made to 

 me by Dr. Studer since his return, there has been an error in this 

 respect, inasmuch as the skin of the male animal originates not from 

 Kerguelen's Land, but from St. Paul or Amsterdam Island. It now 

 became of the greatest importance to me to ascertain by the exami- 

 nation of the skull whether this species agrees with that from Ker- 

 guelen's Land, or with the Otaria Forsteri of New Zealand, which 

 has lately been carefully investigated by Mr. Clark, of Cambridge. 

 By the great kindness of Prof. Mibie-Edwards I have been enabled 

 to make this examination ; and it appears therefrom that the fur- 

 seal of St. Paul and Amsterdam agrees neither with 0. cjazeUa from 

 Kerguelen's Land, nor with 0. Forsteri of New Zealand, at least so 

 far as can be ascertained by comparison with the figure and descrip- 

 tion of the skull of the latter. The fur-seal of St. Paul and Am- 

 sterdam is quite different in colour from 0. Forsteri ; and in its 

 cranial structure it seems to be intermediate between this and 

 0. gazella. I therefore propose for the fine eared seal of St. Paul 

 and Amsterdam the name of Otaria {Arctophoca) elegans, and will 

 venture shortly to make a more detailed communication upon this 

 subject.— Monatsher. der h. prenss. Akad. der Wiss, zu Berlin^ 

 May 1876, p. 316. 



