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THE URSINE SEAL, OR SEA-BEAR Of 

 STELLER. 



Otaria Ursina DESMAREST, 

 PLATE XXI. 



Otaria Ursina, Cuv. Des. 381. Arctocephalus Ursinus, F. 

 Cuv. Ph. Ursina, Gm. Otaria Stelleri, Less.* 



THIS Ursine Seal of Steller has been considered as 

 identical with the Ursine Seal of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, by nearly all Naturalists, and among 

 others by Buffon, who collected all the materials he 

 could procure of both, and applied them to one. 

 All analogy would lead us to question the propriety 

 of this, and we have little doubt that careful examin- 

 ation will lead to an opposite conclusion. The 

 following opinion of Peron's is striking " We are 

 convinced that under the name of Sea-Bear there 

 really exist more than twenty Seals, which differ 



* In Gray's Spi. Zool. there is a cranium of what he calls 

 Arctocephalus Lobatuts, and which he says differs considerably 

 from its congeners, the Phoca Ursina, in Zool. Journ. iv. 496. 



