ALLEN: mammalia: OTARIID^. 121 



netty at the Falkland Islands, and the Fur Seal of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 (/. c, 1826, p. 554), — in other words, all the fur seals then known. As 



F. Cuvier figured the type skull of his genus Arctocephalus, his figure 

 must determine the type of the genus. Furthermore, it is a well-known 

 fact that no skull of Steller's Ursiis marinus reached any European museum 

 till many years after Cuvier established his genus Arctocephahis ; it was 

 thus impossible that this species should have served as the basis of his 

 figure and description of the skull. Besides, his figure does not leave the 

 least doubt as to its being, not this species, but some one of the several 

 southern species of fur seal. Cuvier, himself, does not intimate in either 

 of his two accounts of the genus Arctocephahis the source of his speci- 

 men. In another work,^ of about the same date, he describes the denti- 

 tion of certain of the seals, and says : "J'ai tire cette description de une 

 tete qui avait appartenu a Tours marin [phoca ursina), et qui avait ete 

 rapportee du cap de Bonne-Esp^rance par M. Lalande " ; also his brother 



G. Cuvier, in 1823,^ says he had received from M. Delalande "deux squel- 

 lettes de jeune age, et une tete adulte de cette esp^ce" from the Cape; 

 this adult skull he describes and figures [pp. cit., pi. xviii, fig. 5). As 

 these were the only skulls of this genus in the Paris museums at the time 

 F. Cuvier established ArctocepJialtis, it must be assumed, aside from the 

 evidence afforded by the figure, that his type was noi Phoca ursina Linn., 

 but the Fur Seal of the Cape of Good Hope, referred to by F. Cuvier^ 

 as the "O. [tarie] de Delalande," and later named Arctocephalus dela- 

 laiidii by Gray.^ It had, however, been previously described by Thun- 

 berg in 181 1 as Phoca atitarctica.^ The type oi Arctocephahis F. Cuvier 

 is thus Phoca antarctica Thunberg = Arctocephahis antarcticiis (Thunb.) 

 Gray.^ 



• Generic Characters. — Facial portion of skull slender, elongated, 

 pointed, gently declined. Molars ~ = r'' large in comparison with those of 

 Callotaria. 



Arctocephahis is well distinguished from Callotaria, the only other genus 



' Des Dents des Mammiferes, 1825, p. 123. 

 ^ Ossem. foss., V, 1823, p. 220. 

 'Diet, de Sci. Nat, XXXIX, 1826, p. 558. 

 * Proc. Z06I. Soc. Lond., 1859, p. 107, pi. Ixix. 

 •'Mem. Acad. St. Petersb., Ill, 18 11, 322. 



^Arctocephalus antmrticus Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th Ser., IV, Oct., 1869, p. 266 ; 

 Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, 17. 



