212 FAMILY OTARIID^. 



8. Arctoceplialus antarcticus (Thimbcrg) Allen. 



Phoca ursina, Fokster, and in part of many early "writers. 



? Phoca jnisilJa, Sciireber, ,Siiuget., iii. [177(5?], 314 (=Le Petit Phoque, 

 Buffon, based on a young Fur Seal, from an unknown locality, 

 but sujiposed to have come from India or the Levant,* but as no 

 Seals exist there, and as many animals which, in former years,, 

 purported to have been brought from India were found to be 

 really African, some late writers have assumed that Buffon's 

 "Petit Phoque" must have been also African, but the pertinence 

 of the name intsiUa to the African Fur Seal is not beyond reason- 

 able doubt). t Also of Erxlebex, Gmelin, and others. 



f OtariapusiUa, Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xxv, 1827, 602 (based 

 on the same). 



Otaria pusilla, Peters, Monatsb. Akad. Berlin, 1866, 271, 671 (name adopted 

 from Schreber). 



ArctocejpJialus pumllus, Peters, Monatsb. Akad. Berlin, 1877, 506. 



f " Phoca 2>an-a, Boddaert, Elenchus Anim., pi. Ixsvii" (= Buifon's Petit 

 Phoque, as above). 



Phoca antarcflca, Thunberg, M(5m. Acad. St.-Petersb., iii, 1811,222. 



Arctocephalus antarcticus, Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., ii, 1870, 45. 

 Gray, Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, 17. 



f Otaria peroni, Desmarest, Mam., 1820, 250 (:^ Otaria pusilla, Desmarest,. 

 as above). 



Otaria peroni, '' Smith, South African Quart. Journ. ii, 62." 



any four-footed animal by bending the fore-fliiipers and turning the hind- 

 flippers forward as here represented [in some sketches accompanying these 

 notes, but not here reproduced]. They galloped along the sandy shore at 

 quite good speed. In going over the rocks they tumbled about in every way 

 but would still manage to get along with surjjrising rapidity. I saw many 

 lying on the shore asleep, and there were hundreds more in the water near 

 the shore. On approaching Avithin a few feet of them they would come 

 towards me as if they had been tamed. From a projecting rock I watched 

 their movements in the water a beautiful sight. They would roll over 

 under water, turning complete somersaults, swim on their backs or sides, 

 and in almost every position would glide about in the most graceful manner 

 around the rock on which I was sitting, looking \\\> at me. They often put 



their noses together in the most affectionate way When annoyed 



by flies alighting on their noses they would open their mouths widely and 

 snaj) at them as dogs do. 



"Just back of the beach, and separated from the ocean by a row of man- 

 grove trees, was a lagoon of brackish water in which were a number of 

 Seals, while lying about on the border of the lagoon were many skeletons of 

 those that had died." 



*Buifonsays: " . . . . on nous a assure que I'individu que nous avous vu 

 venoit des Indes, & il est an moins tr^s-probable qu'il venoit des mers du 

 Levant." Rist. Nat., tome xiii, p. 341. 



t Gray says: "It is as likely to have come from the Falkland Islands as 

 from the Cape, as the French had traffic with Les lies Malouines, as they 

 call ihem:' Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, p. 19. 



