SPECIES. 205 



during the last ten or twelve years. Peters and Gray have both, 

 repeatedly during this time radically modified their views re- 

 specting both the number of genera and species; greatly, in the 

 case of Gray at least, out of proportion to the new material they 

 have examined. This fluctuation of opinion shows, in a most 

 emi)hatic manner, how imperfect our knowledge still is respect- 

 ing the Otaries of the Southern Hemisphere. Those of the 

 Northern are much better known, the only doubts still existing 

 having relation to those of Japan. Eespecting all the others, 

 there has been for the last eight years an almost perfect una- 

 nimity of opinion, so far as the question of species is concerned. 

 In 1870 I could find no satisfactory basis for the discrimina- 

 tion of more than a single species of Fur Seal in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, and to my mind the case is now scarcely better, 

 since I have as yet had opportunity of examining only speci- 

 mens from South American localities, with the exception of a. 

 skin and skull of a very young individual from Australia. I 

 now add one species of Hair Seal to the number I then recog- 

 nized. These, which will be discussed more fully later, are the 

 following : 



Sair Seals or Sea-Lions. 



1. OtarLa jubata. 



2. Eumetopias stelleri. 



3. Zalophus californiatius. 



4. Zalophus lobatus. 



5. Phocarctos hookeri. 



Although taken severely to task by Gray and others for my 

 " conservatism," especially respecting Otaria liooTieri, auct. (the 

 justness of which in this instance I now concede), but also as 

 regards the Southern Fur Seals, I must still confess my inability 

 to satisfactorily distinguish them by the published figures and 

 descriptions. I find only such differences indicated as a large 

 series of specimens, embracing both skulls and skins, of two 

 allied species (namely, Callorhi n us ur sinus aiidArctocephalusfalJc- 

 landicKS, auct., australis, Zimm.) show to have no imx:)ortance as 

 specific characters. Indeed, I find Gray himself, in his latest ref- 

 erence to two of these species, writing as follows : '' The New- 

 Zealand skull [^^ JEuotaria cinerea^^] is very like the skull of the 

 Southern Fur-Seal {ArctocepJialus nigrescens) from the Falkland 

 Islands and the south-west coast of Patagonia. It differs in the 

 X^osition and form of the grinders, and in the form of the i)alate, 

 and its contracted sides and truncated hinder part ; it differs 

 considerably from it in the outline and prominence of the tem- 



Fnr Seals or Sea-Beors. 



6. Callorhinus ursinus. 



7. Arctocephalus falklandicus. 

 ?8, Arctoceplialus antarcticus. 

 ?9. Arctoceplialus forsteri. 



