lOO PAT AGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : ZOOLOGY. 



The following synopsis gives in brief the diagnostic characters and geo- 

 graphical distribution of the several genera. 



Synopsis of the Genera. 



A. Pelage harsh, without underfur ; size large ; color yellowish brown TRicHOPHOCACiE. 



a. Molars " " = JJ ; palate deeply concave. 



i. Palatine bones prolonged nearly to the pterygoid hamuli, truncate posteriorly. Coasts 



and islands of southern South America Otaria. 



b.' Palatine bones ending considerably in front of the pterygoid hamuli, narrowed and 



emarginate posteriorly. Aukland Islands Plwcarctos. 



a.' Molars " = '". 



C-B 10 



c. Palatine bones ending very far in front of the pterygoid hamuli, posterior border hol- 

 lowed or emarginate ; interorbital region moderately constricted ; sagittal crest 

 moderate. Molars W = |°, a long diastema between mi and m£. North Pacific. 



Eumetopias. 



c' Palatines much as in Eumetopias; interorbital region greatly constricted; sagittal 

 crest enormously developed ; molars t° = l», no diastema between m^ and m6.. 

 California and Japan, and Australian Seas Zaloplius. 



B. Pelage soft, with abundant underfur ; size much smaller ; color gray, black in young. 



OULIPHOCAC^. 



a. Facial portion of skull broad, short, and high ; brain-case short and broad ; molar teeth 



small. North Pacific Callotaria. 



a.' Facial portion of skull slender, narrow, elongated, and sloping; molars large. Southern 

 Seas, mainly Arctocephalus. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the Eared Seals are geograph- 

 ically separated into two groups, the one northern, the other southern. 

 The former includes the genera Eumetopias, Zaloplius, and Callotaria ; 

 the latter Otaria, Phocarctos, and Arctocephalus. The last-named genus, 

 however, furnishes a partial exception to this statement, for it not only 

 ranges northward on the west coast of South America to the Galapagos 

 Archipelago, situated on the equator, but has also a representative — or 

 had, it being now practically extinct — as far north as the coast of Lower 

 California, namely, the Arctocephalus townsendi, described by Merriam in 

 1897 f'l'orri Guadalupe Island. As Callotaria formerly ranged southward 

 in its winter migrations to the coast of California, it must have nearly or 

 quite met the range of Arctocephalus. Fur Seals were actively hunted 

 during the first third of the nineteenth century all along the Pacific coast 

 of North America as far south as Lower California and the islands off the 

 west coast of Mexico, in north latitude 18° to 20°. As, however, no 

 specimens were secured for scientific examination, and the animals have 



