21 



The male is larger in size and darker coloured than the female, 

 which latter is described aa being yellowish-brown on the sides, black 

 along the back and head, and reddish-brown on the abdomen. The 

 length of a skeleton in the Chicago Academy of Sciences, said to be 

 that of a very old male, which I doubt exceedingly, would make the 

 living animal somewhat over seven feet in length ; a magnitude inferior 

 to that of the Fur Seal, and greatly so to that of the aged male of the 

 kindred species, the Z. lobatus of the Southern Hemisphere. This 

 skeleton probably represents the remains of an aged female, for the 

 dimension given above would correspond nearly with the size usually 

 attained by our Counsellor Seal of similar sex. Mr. Allen " On the 

 Eared Seals" distinctly states that " the two (Z. Gillespii & Z. lobatus) 

 are nearly of the same size, and seem in general to have similar 

 features." If so, the length acquired by a very old male of the Z. 

 Gillespii would be nearer to eleven than seven feet. 



Inhab. : Coasts of Japan and California. 



In 1842 Schlegel described and figured in the Fauna Japonica, a hair 

 seal found on the Japanese coasts, under the name of Otaria Stelleri, 

 and in 1858 Dr. Macbain indicated a new species of seal, from the 

 peculiarities exhibited in the form of a skull, which he obtained from 

 California, now in the Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, 

 Edinburgh, naming it the Otaria Gillespii In the following year Dr. 

 Gray redescribed Dr. Macbain's species, adding a figure, obtained from 

 a cast of the skull. Seven or eight years subsequently, Dr. Peters of 

 Berlin, by the examination of the specimens figured in the " Fauna 

 Japonica," and comparing them with the Edinburgh one, felt assured 

 that Schlegel's and Macbain's animals were of the same species. 



About this latter period, Dr. Gill having seen other skulls of this 

 species, all of which exhibited constant and radical differences between 

 them and the forms found among the other eared-seals, very properly 

 constituted the genus Zalophus. 



ZALOPHUS LOBATUS, Gray. The Counsellor Seal. 



Synonyms Otaria Oinerea, Gray, in King's Narr. Australia. 

 Arctocepfialus lobatus, Gray, B. M. C. 1866, p. 50. 

 Arctocephalus Australis, Quoy et Gaimard. Gray, B.M.C., 



p. 57. 



Zalophus lobatus, Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., p. 44. 

 Neophoca lobata, Gray, Suppl. 1871, p. 28. 



The general colour of the adult male is black-brown, and that of the 

 female a shade lighter. The pups are black, and covered abundantly 

 with soft fur, which diminishes with age. Very old males will attain to 

 twelve feet in length, but adults from eight to nine feet are usually met 

 with. This species, formerly very abundant in Bass's Straits ; iNT.W. 

 coast of Australia; the Seal Bocks off Port Stephens, &c., is still found 

 tolerably numerous j the commercial value of the animal consisting in 



