I04 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



New Zealand, Forster's drawing having been made at Dusky Bay, on the 

 southeastern coast of South Island, New Zealand, March 31, 1773.^ 



In 1824 F. Cuvier^ separated the Otaries (which he still looked upon 

 as consisting of only two species) into two groups, under vernacular French 

 names, as follows : (i) "Arctocephale,"and (2) " Platyrhinque." He says 

 " nous prenons le type de ce genre Arctocephale dans I'Ours marin, Phoca 

 nrsina." Of the second he says : " Le lion marin [Phoca leonina) paroit 

 etre le type de ce dernier genre, auquel nous donnerons la denomination 

 de Platyrhinque." 



Two years later he introduced these terms in proper Latin form, as, re- 

 spectively, ArctocepJialus and PlatyyJiyncits^ and says, " quoique I'un et 

 I'autre de ces genre ne se composent encore manifestement que d'une 

 seule espece." One he calls ''ArctocepJialits itrsinns ; Ursiis marirms, 

 Steller, Novi comment, petrop., 11, p. 331"; vaguely referring also to 

 Pernetty and Forster. The other he calls '' Platyrhyncus leoninus ; Lion 

 marin, Steller, Nov. act. petrop., 2 ; Forster, 2 Voyages de Cook, t. 4 ; 

 Pernetti, Voyage aux iles Malouines, t. 2, pi. 10," etc. No specimens are 

 definitely mentioned in either of Cuvier's articles, but a skull of each genus 

 is figured in his first paper. These illustrations are based not on Stellers 

 animals mentioned in the text, but, in the case of Platyrhyncits, on the 

 Southern Sea Lion, and in the case oi Arctocepimlus on a fur seal from the 

 Cape of Good Hope. Cuvier's plate xv (/. c.) therefore determines the type 

 for both groups, which in the case of Arctocephalus is the Cape of Good 

 Hope species, Arctocephalus antarcticiis (Thunberg), and in the case of 

 Platyrhynciis, the sea lion of Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, named 

 Otaria leonina by Peron. This would restrict Otaria to Steller's Sea 

 Lion were it not, fortunately for the present current nomenclature of the 

 group, that the name Platyrhynchus is doubly preoccupied — for a genus 

 of birds by Desmarest in 1805, and by Thunberg in 18 15 for a genus of 

 Coleoptera. 



It hence fortunately happens that the first valid restriction of Otaria, 

 alter the Fur Seals [Arctocephalus) were removed, was made in 1866, when 

 Gill established Eumetopias for the sea lion of Steller, and Zalophus for 



' Cf. Forster's Descript. Anim., p. 64. Compare also Forster's " Voyage Round the World," 

 I, 1777, p. 151, and Buffon, Hist. Nat., Suppl., VI, 1782, pp. 330, ct seq. 

 'Mem. du Miis. d'Hist. Nat. XI, 1824, pp. 205-209, pi. xv. 

 ^Dict. des Sci. Nat., Vol. XXXIX, 1826, pp. 553-555. 



