COMPARISON WITH ALLIED SPECIES. 245 



about two feet, and describes their color at tliis age as being 

 *'dark cliocolate-brown." When they are a year old he says 

 they have the same color as the adults. On theii* arrival at the 

 Prybilov Islands in spring, Mr. Elliott states that he was un- 

 able to discern any marked dissimilarity of coloring between 

 the males and females, and adds that the "young males and 

 yearlings" have the same color as the adults, with here and 

 there an animal marked with irregularly disposed patches of 

 dark brown. After their arrival, the general color gradually 

 becomes somewhat lighter or more golden, and darker again 

 after the moult. 



As already noted, the sexual differences in the skull are 

 strongly marked. They are, however, only parallel with those 

 seen in the other species of Otaries. The skeleton of the female 

 is still unknown to me, but may be presumed to differ from that 

 of the male very much, as is found to be the case in the Fur Seal, 

 as described further on. 



Geographical Variation. The material at hand seems to 

 indicate that there is no marked variation in size with locality. 

 A considerable series of skulls from the California coast indi- 

 cates that the species attains fully as large a size there as at the 

 Prybilov Islands. One of the largest skulls I have seen came 

 from the Farallone Islands, the extreme southern limit repre- 

 sented by the specimens before me. 



Comparison with Allied Species. Euniefopias stelleri is 

 the largest of the Eared Seals, very much exceeding in size any 

 of the other species of the family except Otaria jubata, which 

 alone it sufficiently resembles in external features to render com- 

 parison necessary. While widely distinct from the latter in 

 cranial characters, it seems to quite closely resemble it in exter- 

 nal features, so far as may be judged from descriptions. The 

 character of the pelage, the color, and the conformation of the 

 limbs are mucli the same in both. In neither ia there a distinct 

 "mane," so often attributed to them, and especially to the 

 Southern Sea Lion, although the hair on the neck and shoul- 

 ders is longer than elsewhere, the resemblance to the mane of 

 the Lion being due to the heavy folds of skin over the shoul- 

 diers when the head is raised, more than to the existence of an 

 abundance of lengthened hair that can in any true sense be 

 considered as forming a mane such as is seen in Leo.* The skins 



* According to Captain Bryant, "At tlie fouxtli year of age the neck and 

 shoulders thicken, from having a thick layer of fat under the skin, the skin 



