GENERAL HISTORY. 291 



later (see infra, p. 293), appear .to be not as yet satisfactorily 

 determined. As Zalophus californianus has not yet been detec- 

 ted on the American coast north of California, its occurrence 

 on the Asiatic coast seems hardly to be expected. 



GENERAL HISTORY. This species has hitherto be en believed 

 to be free from any serious complications of synonymy, and to 

 have been first brought to the notice of the scientific world by 

 M'Bain in 1858. The only synonym hitherto quoted has been 

 Otaria stelleri, "Schlegel" (i. e., Temininck), which Dr. Peters* 

 stated, after an examination of the original specimens preserved 

 in the Leyden museum, to be identical with the 0. gillespii of 

 M'Baiu. A re-examination of the subject, in the light of much 

 new information and material, shows that the first notice of the 

 species was published by Choris in 1822, under the name of 

 u Lion marin de la Californie," who gave a rather poor figure 

 of it in plate XI of his chapter entitled u Port San-Francisco et 

 ses Habitants." As already stated under the head of Eume- 

 topias stellerij his only reference to it in the text of this chapter 

 is as follows: "Les rochers, dans le voisinage de la baie San- 

 Francisco sont ordinaireinent cou verts de lions marins, pi. XI." 

 In his account of the Aleutian Islands, however, he again refers to 

 it, and clearly indicates its characteristic external features. He 

 says : " Ces animaux [Lions marins] sont aussi tres-communs an 

 port de San-Francisco, sur la cote de Californie, ou on les voit 

 en nombre prodigieux sur les rochers de la baie. Cette espece 

 m ? a paru se distinguer de ceux qui frequenteut les iles Aleou- 

 tiennes ; elle a le corps plus fiuet et plus allonge, et la tete plus 

 fine : quant a le 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 difificiles, la tete 

 plus grosse et plus paisse; la couleur du poil des moustaches 

 plus noiratre que celui des iles Aleoutiennes."t 



The importance of this reference turns upon its being an explicit 

 indication of the character of his "Lion marin de la Californie," 

 the subject of "PI. XI"; this being, as is well known, the basis 

 of Lesson's Otaria californiana, which has hitherto been re- 

 ferred to Uumetopias stellerij but which is really the same as 

 the so-called Zalophus gillespii. Lesson says: "Cette espece, 

 d'apres la figure de Choris, a le pelage ras, uniforme"ment fauve- 

 brunatre, les moustaches peu fournies; le inuseau assez pointu; 



*Monatsb. Akad. Berlin, 1866, p. 669. 

 tVoy. pittoresque, lies A16outiennes, p. 15. 



