Dr. Burmeister on Arctocephalus Hookeri. 89 



X. — Notes on Arctocephalus Hookeri, Gray. 

 By Dr. Buemeister*. 



Under this title my esteemed friend Dr. J. E. Gray described, 

 in the year 1845 (The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.SS. 

 'Erebus' and ' Terror,' p. 4, pis. xiv. & xv.), a seal found 

 in the Falkland Isles and on the shores of Cape Horn, 

 which has been recognized by him as a well-founded spe- 

 cies. 



This animal has not since been found and examined by any 

 competent scientific person. The authors that speak of it, 

 as Peters in his Catalogue of Seals with external ears (Mo- 

 natsber. d. kon, Acad. d. Wiss. z. Berlin, 1866, viii. 269. no. 5), 

 give no other information than extracts from Dr. Gray's de- 

 scription. Sclater alone believed that he recognized the same 

 species in a young seal that was brought alive to London from 

 Buenos Ayres, and purchased for the Menagerie of the Zoo- 

 logical Society (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1866, p. 80). This individual 

 was one of the two that had been seen alive here in St. Mar- 

 tin's Street, No. 75, and which also is fignired in the popular 

 newspaper ' The Field,' vol. xxvii. no. 689, March 10, 1866, 

 p. 191, as also in these 'Anales,' tom. i. p. 303. 



The two figures, in the ' Field ' and by Sclater ill. cc), are 

 very good, and represent the animal very naturally, as it was 

 drawn alive, as I can testify from my own repeated observa- 

 tions of the two specimens seen in Buenos Ayres. 



Murie shares this opinion, in his note on the death of this 

 specimen, caused by the poor animal having swallowed a little 

 bit of canvas (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 243). And again, 

 more recently {ibid. 1869, p. 108), that author thought that he 

 could identify Otaria Hookeri of Gi-aj with Otaria Philippii of 

 Peters; but in fact it is altogether different. 



Two years ago Sclater retracted his first opinion of this 

 animal, submitting to the judgment of Gray and Peters that 

 the living seal in London was none other than a young speci- 

 men of Otaria juhata s. leonina of older authors (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1868, p. 190). 



Considering this difference of opinion between men so di- 

 stinguished in science, it has appeared to me a matter of much 

 importance to have received the skin and skull of a male seal, 

 lately killed at the mouth of the Bio Parang, about 60 miles 

 above Buenos Ayres, by some fishermen, in the month of May 

 1869 ; but at the first glance, on examining the skin and skull 

 as they were, I also took it for Arctocephalus Hookeri of Gray; 



* Translated from the ' Anales del Museo Publico de Buenos Aires,' 

 1870, by J. P. G. Smith, Esq. 



