252 EUMETOPIAS STELLERI KTKLLER'S SEA LION 



lie placed his A. monteriensis (=0. stelleri, auct.) in the genus 

 Araoceplialus, and the southern Sea Lion in Otaria, with which 

 he associated the 0. stelleri. He failed, however, to recognize 

 the identity of his A. monteriensis with his 0. stelleri, and hence 

 the entire generic diversity of the northern and southern Sea 

 Lions seems to have escaped his observation. The latter fact 

 was first pointed out by Dr. Gill in his "Prodrome," as above 

 stated. 



Dr. Gray has recently described and figured the skull of what 

 he at first regarded as a second species of Eumetopias from 

 Japan, and which he called Eumetopias elongatus,* but he sub- 

 sequently transferred it to his " genus" Phocarctos.} In his first 

 mention of it, however, he referred it to Eumetopias stelleri.^ 

 The "Phocarctos elongatus" was first described from a "nearly 

 adult" skull (pi. xxi, Hand-List), eleven inches long and seven 

 and a half broad at the condyles, and placed u in the genus 

 Eumetopias, because it had a space in the place of the fifth 

 upper grinder." Judging from the figures and Dr. Gray's de- 

 scription, it seems to differ in no important point from the skull 

 of an adult female, E. stelleri. Later he received from Japan 

 a younger skull (pi. xxii, Hand-List), " seven and a half 

 inches long and four and a half inches broad," which agrees in 

 general form with the other, but has a " shorter palate," six 

 upper molars (instead of five), and differs u in the form of the 

 internal nostrils." He considered the two as both belonging 

 to the same species, and, from the presence of six upper molars 

 in the young skull, transferred the species to " Phocarctos." 



Judging from Dr. Gray's figure of this skull (Hand-List of 

 Seals, pi. xxii), it seems to be referable to Zalophus (the Japan 

 species, probably Z. lobatus), the last pair of upper molars 

 being in all probability supernumerary, as they are smaller 

 than the others and differ from those preceding them just as do 

 the supernumerary molars in skulls of Zalophus calif or nianus. 



Dr. Gray seems to have believed that Eumetopias has in early life 

 six upper molars on each side, and that the fifth, or last but one, is 

 deciduous, thus leaving a vacuity between the last two molars 

 on either side. Of this I have seen no evidence ; on the con- 

 trary, I have found in a very young skull the same number of 

 molars as in the adult. Thus skull No. 4703 (National Museum), 



*Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1873,776, figg. 1, 2. 



t Hand-List Seals, etc., 1874, 30, pU. xxi, xxii. 



iProc.Zool. Soc. Lond., 1872, 737, figg. I (head), 2, and 3 (skull). 



Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1872, pp. 738,739; Hand-List of Seals, pi. xxi. 



