292 ZALOPHUS CALIFOEMANUS OALlFimNIAN SEA LION. 



les inembres anterieiirs soiit reguliers, plus grands que les pos- 

 terieiirs. Cinq nidimens d'ongles occupeut I'extremite des 

 plialanges, et sont debordes par une large bande de la mem- 

 brane. Les pieds posteriem^s sont minces, ayant trois ongies an 

 milieu et deux rudimens d'ongles internes et externes. Cinq 

 festons lanceoles et etroits d^passent de cinq a sex pouces les 

 ongies. La queue est tr^s-courte. Des cotes de la Californie." * 

 His sole reference is "jeune Lion maiin de la Californie, Choris, 

 Yoy. pittoresq., pi. 11," and bis descrii>tion seems to be based 

 wholly upon this figure. Immediately preceding this is his 

 description of the "Otarie de Steller, Otaria Stellerii, X.; Lion 

 Marin, Leo marinus, Steller, de Bestils Marims,^^ etc., which 

 closes with "Peut-etre I'Otarie de Steller est-il identique avec 

 I'Otarie suivantf " While it may be urged that the Eumetopias 

 steUeri also occurs in San Francisco Bay, Choris does not seem 

 to have recognized it there, while he did observe a species that 

 seemed to him to be different from the Sea Lions and Sea Bears 

 of the Aleutian Islands, and in describing these differences he 

 has indicated most clearly the distinctive i)oints of diflerence, as 

 seen in the living animals, between these species. Furthermore, 

 it turns out that the Zaiophus giUespii, auct., is still the common 

 species of that locality and of the California coast generally. 

 On this point Mr. Elliott, who has had ami)le opportunity of 

 observing both species in life, t says: "I have no hesitation 

 in i)utting this Eumetopias of the Prybilov Islands apart from 

 the Sea Lion common at San Francisco and Santa Barbara, as a 

 distinct animal," but adds, " I am not to be understood as saying 

 that all the Sea Lions met with on the Californian coast are dif- 

 } ferent from E. stelleri of Bering Sea. I am well satisfied that 

 stragglers from the north are down on the Farallones, but they 

 are not migrating back and forth every season ; and I am fur- 

 ; thermore certain that not a single animal of the species most 

 common at San Francisco was present among those breeding on 

 the Prybilov Islands in 1872-'73."| 



If I am right in considering the Zaiophus gillespii, auct., as 



identical with Otaria californiana of Lesson, of which I think 



there is no reasonable doubt, the synonymy of this species has 



' narrowly escaped further complications, Dr. GiU, in his first 



[mention of Eumetopias, saying: "Type, Otaria californiana 



I *Dict. class. d'Hist. Nat., xiii, 1828, 420. 



^^ +1 have in hand, colored drawings of both species, made by hiiu from life, 

 I which he has kindly placed at my disjiosal. 

 ', t Cond. of Aflairs in Alaska, i>. 158. 



