"36 HAND-LIST OF SEALS, MORSES, 



Dr. Hector, after my repeated inquiry for the New-Zealand iSea- 

 bear, was so fortunate as to kill several specimens of this animal, and 

 has most kindly sent to the British Museum an adult skull of those 

 which he had procured. 



I have compared the adult skull sent by Dr. Hector with the figure 

 of the skull of the adult male in Quoy and Gaimard's ' Voyage de 

 I'Astrolabe,' 1824, tab. 13. figs. 1 & 2 ; and I believe that they 

 represent the same species, though there is a slight difference in the 

 position of the grinders as compared with the skull, which has the 

 front edge of the fourth grinder even with the back part of the large 

 aperture in front of the zygomatic arch, whilst in the figure the front 

 edge of the fifth grinder appears to be in this situation ; but this may 

 only be a want of accuracy on the part of the artist. 1 have little 

 doubt that Quoy's animal from Port Western and the New-Zealand 

 one are the same ; but it is a matter of doubt if the animal figured 

 by Quoy is the Otaria cinerea of Desmarest's ' Mammalia,' pp. 251, 

 348, from Peron and Lesueur's ' Voyage,' tab. ii. p. 75, who received 

 it from Kangaroo Island ; for I am not awai'e that Peron brought 

 home any specimen. It is certainly not the same as Arctoeeplmlus 

 {Gypsoplioca) cinerea in the British-Museum Catalogue, described 

 from Mr. Macgillivray's specimens. 



The New-Zealand skull is very like the skuU of the Southern Fur- 

 Seal {Arctocephalus nigrescens) from the Falkland Islands and the 

 south-west coast of Patagonia. It differs in the position and form of 

 the grinders, and in the form of the palate, and its contracted sides 

 and truncated hinder part ; it differs considerably from it in the out- 

 line and prominence of the temporal buUte and the os petrosnm. The 

 upper surfaces are very much alike, and the orbits are very large and 

 of the same size. The lower jaws are very similar ; but the callosity 

 of the Falkland-Island specimen is rath»?r longer, and the crown of 

 the teeth is longer and rather more slender — the crown of the New- 

 Zealand specimen being as long as broad, that of the Falkland-Island 

 specimen being one third longer than broad. 



2. EUOTARIA NIGRESCENS. 



Arctocephalus nigrescens, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Seals <§■ Whales, p. 20 ; 

 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 657, figs. 3 & 4 (skull, wrongly named A. 

 cineretis). 



The grinders compressed ; ci'own elongate. 



Animal, stuffed. 



1013«. SkuU. (PI. XXVIII.) 



Arctocephalus nigrescens, Gray, Zool. Ereb. 4' Terror (ined. ). 

 Euotaria nigrescens. Gray, Ann. Sf May. N. H. 1868, i. p. 106. 

 Arctocephalus cinereus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 657, figs. 3 & 4 (not 

 description). 

 Falkland Islands (Abbott). 



10136. Animal, with skull, stuffed. 

 Falkland Islands. 



