ALLEN: mammalia: otariid^. 113 



Pinniped. The essential facts of the case, then, are: (i) The skull on 

 which the name PJioca byyonia was based is beyond doubt a skull of the 

 sea lion [Oiaria jiibata auct.) found on the islands and coasts of southern 

 South America ; (2) that it is also the first name exclusively based on 

 that animal that is perfectly identifiable and not preoccupied. It is hence 

 necessarily the only available name for this species, which must stand as 

 Otaria byronia (Blainville).^ 



Several subsequent names also relate exclusively to this species, which 

 of course become synonyms of Otaria byronia. Among these may be 

 mentioned Otaria molossina Lesson & Garnot, 1826, based on the Sea 

 Lion of the Falkland Islands, very fully described and well figured in the 

 Zoology of the Voyage of the Coqnille, from a semi-adult male specimen. 

 Other synonyms were added the following year (1827) by Lesson, as 

 Otaria periiettyi, based on Pernetty's account of the Falkland Island Sea 

 Lion, and PlatyrJiynciis uranice, based on the " Otarie Guerin " of Quoy 

 and Gaimard, — a young or female sea lion, also from the Falkland 

 Islands. In 1841 Miiller added Otaria piatyrhinchus, based on the type of 

 F. Cuvier's genus Platyrhyiiciis, and Otaria cJiilensis, based on specimens 

 obtained by Philippi on the coast of Chili. In 1844 von Tschudi added 

 Otaria ulloce = the female of Otaria byronia {=JHbata auct.) as recognized 

 by Peters, Gray, and Burmeister. Peters in 1866 added Otaria godeffroyi, 

 from the Chincha Islands, off the coast of Peru, which he later considered 

 doubtfully distinct from O. jitbata, and to which it was subsequently re- 

 ferred by Gray and Burmeister as representing the male of that species. 

 Gray, in 1871, described an Otaria minor and an Otaria pygnicua, both 

 based on skulls from unknown localities, and previously referred by him 

 to O. jiibata. Finally, Philippi, in 1892, added three more, namely, 

 Otaria ve/ntina, O. ftilva and O. ru/a, besides reviving O. molossina and 

 O. chilensis of previous authors, making six species recognized by him 

 from the coast and islands of Chili. His descriptions and figures of most 

 of them are based on very young specimens, some of them still retaining 

 part of the milk dentition. 



' Desmarest, the same year (Mamm., I, 1820, p. 240), gave a description of the same skull, 

 under the name Phoca byronii, " espece nouvelle, fondee par M. de Blainville," etc., his account hav- 

 ing been evidently based on Blainville's manuscript description. He believed it to be allied to the 

 Sea Elephant, as did Lesson in 1827. Evidently Desmarest's account was written before Blainville's 

 description was published, and in the uncertainty as to which account was actually first published, 

 it is best to consider Blainville as the author of the species and accept his form of the name. 



