188 FAMILY OTARIIDiE. 



ft 



TECHNICAL, HISTORY. 



Higher Groups. The Eared Seals were referred by the 

 older writers to the Linnfean genus PJioca. Buffon, in 1782, re- 

 cognized the Seals as consisting of two groups, characterized 

 by the presence or absence of external ears. Peron, in 1816, 

 first divided the Seals into two genera, he separating the Eared 

 Seals from the earless ones under the name Otaria. Later, 

 Brookes, in 1828, raised the group of Eared Seals to the rank of 

 a family, under the name of Otariadw. This classification was 

 not, however, generally adopted till 1866, when it was revived 

 by Gill, and immediately adopted by Gray, and it has been ac- 

 cepted by most subsequent writers. Gray, Turner, and others, 

 had previously considered the Eared Seals as forming a sub- 

 family of thePJiocidw, for which Gray, at different times, used the 

 names Otariina and ArctocepJialina, which latter was also adopted 

 for the name of the group by Turner in 1848. In 1870 I di- 

 vided the Eared Seals into two groups, which I provisionally 

 adopted as subfamilies, with the names THcMpliocinm and Ouli- 

 pliocinw, in allusion to the nature of the pelage. The charac- 

 ters assigned, while i^erhaps of small importance, relating mainly 

 to size, character of the pelage, and size and shape of the ear, 

 and insufficient to characterize divisions of this grade, serve 

 to mark two natural groups, the so-called Sea Lions, or Hair 

 Seals, forming the one, and the Sea Bears, or the Eur Seals of 

 commerce, the other. 



Dr. Gray, in 1869,* divided the family into five ^'tribes," 

 which he termed, respectively, Otariina, Callorhinina, Arcto- 

 cephalina, Zalophina, and Eumetojnina, mainly with reference to 

 the number of the grinders and the x)osition of the hinder pair. 

 These " tribes " he at the same time combined into two " sections," 

 the one embracing the Otariina (consisting of his genus Otaria), 

 and the other all the others, this division being based on the 

 posterior extension of the bony palate. To his first primary 

 division ("Section I*'), consisting, as just stated, of the single 

 genus Otaria as limited by Gray, and, as seems to me, embrac- 

 ing only the single species 0. juhata of recent authors, he re- 

 stricted the name " Sea Lions," applying to the other, embi^ac- 

 ing aU the other Eared Seals, the name ''Sea Bears." This 

 latter group, however, embraces not only the animals commonly 

 called Sea Bears by other authors, as well as by travelers and 



*Ami. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., vol. iv, pp. 264-270. 



