Mammalia. 29 



specimens from New Zealand (1858), the Falkland Islands (1867 and 

 1880), and Tasmania (1871). One was brought home from the shore 

 south-east of Cape Horn by the French Antarctic Expedition of 1837- 

 1840, and Gray alludes to others from the North Shore, Newcastle, 

 New South Wales, and from Port Nicholson, New Zealand. It 

 occurs, no doubt, on the coast of Patagonia. On the other hand, 

 although it probably frequents numerous islands, it is not quite safe 

 to accept Moseley's note of a herd, estimated at four hundred in 

 number, which occupied a small outlier of Kerguelen as being of 

 this species. Moseley's information was derived from sealers, and 

 although he states that he had seen examples of Seals larger than the 

 Weddell's Sea Leopard which he brought home under this name, he 

 evidently did not at the time distinguish the two species. Moseley 

 also states that a beach at Herald Island, which lies about three 

 hundred miles south of Kerguelen, " was strewed with bones of the 

 Sea-Elephant and Sea-Leopard, those of the former being most 

 abundant." 



On the pack ice this species has been found in some numbers, 

 notably by Mr. Bruce, near Graham Land, and by the ' Southern Cross.' 

 According to Mr. Borchgrevink, it was one of the two "best repre- 

 sented " Seals in the pack ice near Victoria Land, and it breeds at 

 Eobertson Bay (pp. 2.36, 237). Further it is probably this species 

 which, on the same authority, remained at Eobertson Bay and Cape 

 Adare nearly all the winter. It was also found by the ' Behjica ' on 

 the pack ice, but in what numbers is not stated by Dr. Eacovitza. 



Habits. — The first notice of the habits of the Leopard-Seal was 

 that sent to Gray by Dr. Frederick Knox, and accompanied the 

 skeleton and part of the viscera of a specimen stated to have been 

 shot and captured in Evans Bay, Port Nicholson, New Zealand, in 

 November, 1843. The stomach is recorded to have "contained 

 numerous fish-bones, a few feathers (gulls'), and some considerable 

 portions of a pale green, broad-leaved, marine fucus : thousands of 

 a small, hard, round, white worm (parasitical) pervaded all parts 

 of the intestines." Some details are added as to the appearance 

 of the animal and the dimensions of its viscera. Dr. Knox called 

 it the " Sea-Bear," an error to which Gray thinks is due the in- 

 clusion of the true Otaria (Callotaria) ursina in the New Zealand 

 Fauna. 



Other observers have referred to a predilection on the part of the 

 Leopard-Seal for birds' flesh. On this subject Dr. Eacovitza 

 remarks that all he can say is that he once saw two of these Seals 

 quarrelling over the carcase of an Emperor Penguin which had been 



