24 otaeiad^:. 



nearly uniform in size. The lower grinders are of a much larger 

 size than the upper ones in the adult skull, as if they helonged to 

 the permanent series : they are of the same form as the teeth in 

 adult skulls ; but the central cone is higher and more acute, and the 

 anterior and posterior lobes at the base of the cone are more deve- 

 loped and acute, the lobes of the last or fifth grinder being larger 

 and rather on the inner surface of the tooth. 



The skull of Capt. Abbott's animal is evidently not the same as 

 the skull of a young Eared Seal described and figured by Dr. Bur- 

 meister as the skull of Arctocephalus falTclandicus from the mouth 

 of the Rio de la Plata, in the Ann. & Mag. Rat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. 

 xviii. p. 99, t. 9, which, from the appearance of the grinders, I 

 suspect is the young skull of Phocarctos HooTceri, the Hair-Seal of 

 the Falkland Islands. There is a considerable difference in the 

 proportions of the skull sent by Capt. Abbott from those of the one 

 figured by Dr. Burmeister. In Capt. Abbott's specimen the brain- 

 case, from the back edge of the orbit to the occiput, is as long as the 

 length of the face, from the same edge of the orbit to the end of the 

 nose. In Dr. Burmeister's figure, the face from the same point 

 is much longer than the brain-case. 



• ** Fourth, fifth y and sixth upper grinders with tivo diverging roots; the 

 fifth upper grinder entirely behind the hinder edge of the zygomatic 

 arch. The palate narrow. Gypsophoca. (Australia.) 



3. Arctocephalus cinereus. Australian Fur-Seal. 



Otaria (Arctocephalus) ciuerea, Peters, Monatsb. 1866, pp. 272 & 



671. 

 Arctocephalus nigrescens, b fy c, Gerrard, Cat. Bones P.M. p. 147. 

 Black Seal, Otaria, Cat. Sidney Museum, ii. p. 36. 

 Arctocephalus cinereus, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 56 ; Ann. fy 



Maq. N. H. 1866, xviii. p. 236; Allen, Pull. Mas. Comp. Zool. ii. 



p. 45. 



Inhab. Australia (John Macgillivray). 



Black, greyer beneath ; under-fur abundant, reddish brown. 



There are the stuffed skin, with its skull, and the bones of the 

 face of another young specimen of this Seal in the British Museum, 

 collected in the Australasian Sea by Mr. John MacgiUivray. 



Aocording to the observations of Dr. Peters, founded on the exa- 

 mination of the typical skulls, Otaria ursina of Nilsson and Otaria 

 Lemarii of J. Miiller (Arch. f. Naturg. 1841, p. 334) include the 

 Arctocephalus antarcticus from South Africa and A. cinereus of Aus- 

 tralia. 



Otaria Stelleri of Schlegel (Fauna Japonica, t. 22. f. 55) includes 

 both the Australian Eared Seals, viz. Arctocephalus cinereus and 

 Neophoca lobata ; and it is quite distinct from the Otaria Stelleri of 

 Lesson and J. Miiller, which is a combination of the Sea-bear and 

 Sea-lion of Steller (that is to say, Eumetopias Stelleri and Callorhi- 

 nus ursinus). 



The males of these animals are described as twice as long and 



