GENERAL HISTORY. 251 



on les voit en nombre prodigieux sur les rochers de la bale. 

 Oette espece m'a paru se distinguier de ceux qui fre'quentent 

 les iles Aleoutiennes ; elle a la corps plus fluet et plus allonge", 

 et la tete plus fine : quant a la couleur, elle passe fortement au 

 brun, tandis que ceux des iles Aleoutiennes sont d'une couleur 

 plus grise, ont le corps plus rond, les mouvements plus difficiles, 

 la tete plus grosse et plus e"paisse; la couleur du poll des 

 moustaches plus noiratre que celui des iles Aleoutiennes."* 



It thus appears that Choris clearly recognized the larger and 

 the smaller Sea Lions of the west coast of North America, and 

 correctly pointed out their more obvious points of external 

 difference. Hence Lesson's name Otaria californiana^ founded 

 on Choris's "Lion marin de la Calif brnie," must be considered as 

 applying exclusively to what has till now been commonly known 

 as Zalophus gillespii. 



Dr. Gill, however, in his "Prodrome," adopted provisionally 

 Lesson's name (californiana) for the present species, but at the 

 same time asserted its identity with the Arctocephalus monte- 

 riensis of Gray (1859), and also suggested its probable identity 

 with the so-called Otaria stelleri of Miiller. Peters, a few months 

 later, came to the conclusion that Gill's suggestion was correct, 

 since which time the name stelleri has been universally accepted 

 for the larger northern Hair Seal. The Otaria, stelleri of Tem- 

 mirick, t formerly supposed by Grayf and also by Peters 

 to include both the Australian Eared Seals (viz, Arctocephalus 

 cinereus and Zalophus lobatus), has finally been referred by 

 the latter, after an examination of the original specimens in 

 the Ley den Museum, to the so-called Zalophus gillespii. \\ I be- 

 lieve, however, that the skull of the young female figured 

 in Fauna Japonica (pi. xxii, figg. 5 and 6) belongs to some 

 other species. It certainly differs greatly in proportions, as 

 well as in dentition, from the other skulls figured in that work 

 (same plate), and called 0. stelleri. 



The northern Sea Lion having become generally recognized 

 as specifically distinct from the Sea Lion of the southern seas, 

 Dr. Gill, in 1866, separated the two generically. This had 

 indeed already been done practically by Dr. Gray, inasmuch as 



* Voy. Pittor. aut. du Monde, Iles A16outienues, p. 13. 



tFauiia Japonica, Mam. marins, p. 10. 



I Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d series, 1866, vol. xviii, p. 229. 



$ Monatsberichte Akad. Berlin, 1866, pp. 272, 276. 



|| Ibid., p. 669. See further on this point posted, under Zalophus calif or- 



