112 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



majority of writers for the last fifty years; but Gray, in 1871, referred it 

 to Phocarctos hooker i} The W2ccci& flavescens evidently rests on a basis 

 too unsatisfactory to warrant its use for any species. 



In 1820 Blainville^ described and figured the skull of a sea lion found 

 by him in the Hunterian Museum of London, bearing the legend "Sea 

 Lion from the island of Tinian, by Commodore Byron." His description 

 of this skull is given in considerable detail, and his figure, though rough, 

 aids in determining beyond doubt its reference to the sea lion [Otaria] of 

 southern South America. On a later page he bestowed upon it the name 

 Phoca byronia. This skull, fortunately, was afterward deposited in the 

 British Museum, and finally transferred to the osteological collection of 

 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, where it is still preserved. 

 It has been examined by numerous competent authorities, as G. Cuvier, 

 Nilsson, Gray, Peters, Burmeister and Flower, who have uniformly 

 referred it to Otaria jubata auct. Gray says (Suppl. Cat. Seals and 

 Whales, 1871, p. 13) : "I cannot see any difference between the skull in 

 the College of Surgeons, on which Phoca Byronia was founded and those 

 [of Otaria jubata^ in the British Museum." Flower, in his Catalogue of the 

 Osteological Collections of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 enters this skull with the following comment: "This specimen was 

 brought to England in 1769, by Commodore Byron, as is stated, from 

 Tinian, one of the Ladrone Islands, and was for many years preserved in 

 the British Museum. It is not improbable that there has been a mistake 

 as to the locality assigned to it, or that it was brought to the island by 

 some human agency or accident, as living Sea-Lions of this species have 

 never been met with nearer Tinian than the Galapagos Islands. There 

 is no mention of it in Byron's published narrative. De Blainville has 

 given a very incorrect description and figure of this specimen in the 

 'Journal de Physique,' tome xci., pp. 287 and 300 (1820), under the 

 name of Phoca byronia, whence Phoca byronii, Desmarest, Mammalogie, 

 p. 240 (1820)." — Flower, /. c, II, p. 189. 



As stated by Flower, the skull could not, therefore, as alleged, have 

 come from the Island of Tinian, one of the Mariana or Ladrone Islands 

 (lat. 15° N.), which are situated far outside of the range of any known 



'Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, p. 14. 



^Journ. de Phys., XCI, Oct., 1820, p. 287, fig. 3 of plate dated Dec, 1820; named Phoca 

 byronia on p. 300. 



