292 ZALOPHUS CALIFORNIAMJ3 CALIFORNIAN SEA LION. 



les inembres anterieurs sont reguliers, plus grands que les pos- 

 terieurs. Cinq rudimens d'ongles occupent Pextre"mite des 

 phalanges, et sont delxxrdes par une large bande de la mem- 

 brane. Les pieds posterieurs sont minces, ay ant trois ongles a,u 

 milieu et deux rudimens d'ongles internes et externes. Cinq 

 festons lanceoles et etroits dtpassent de cinq a sex pouces les 

 ongles. La queue est tre"s-courte. Des cotes de la Californie." * 

 His sole reference is "jeune Lion maiin de la Californie, Choris, 

 Yoy. pittoresq., pi. 11," and his description seems to be based 

 wholly upon this figure. Immediately preceding this is his 

 description of the "Otarie de Steller, Otaria Stellerii, !N".; Lion 

 Marin, Leo marimis, Steller, de Bestiis Marinis? etc., which 

 closes with "Peut-etre POtarie de Steller est-il identique avec 

 POtarie suivantT* While it may be urged that the Eumetopias 

 stelleri also occurs in San Francisco Bay, Choris does not seem 

 to have recognized it there, while he did observe a species that 

 seemed to him to be different from the Sea Lions and Sea Bears 

 of the Aleutian Islands, and in describing these differences he 

 has indicated most clearly the distinctive points of difference, as 

 seen in the living animals, between these species. Furthermore, 

 it turns out that the Zalophus gillespiij auct., is still the common 

 species of that locality and of the California coast generally. 

 On this point Mr. Elliott, who has had ample opportunity of 

 observing both species in life,t says: "I have no hesitation 

 in putting this Eumetopias of the Prybilov Islands apart from 

 the Sea Lion common at San Francisco and Santa Barbara, as a 

 distinct animal," but adds, " I am not to be understood as saying 

 that all the Sea Lions met with on the Californian coast are dif- 



* ferent from E. stelleri of Bering Sea. I am well satisfied that 

 stragglers from the north are down on the Farallones, but they 

 are not migrating back and forth every season ; and I am fur- 



* thermore certain that not a single animal of the species most 

 common at San Francisco was present among those breeding on 

 the Prybilov Islands in 1872-73." f 



If I am right in considering the ZalopJius gillespii, auct., as 

 identical with Otaria californiana of Lesson, of which I think 

 there is no reasonable doubt, the synonymy of this species has 

 narrowly escaped further complications, Dr. Gill, in his first 

 mention of Eumetopias, saying: "Type, Otaria californiana 



*Dict. class. d'Hist. Nat., xiii, 1828, 420. 



tl have in hand colored drawings of both species, made by him from life, 

 which he has kindly placed at my disposal. 

 t Cond. of Affairs in Alaska, p. 158. 



