10 OTARIADiE. 



front edge, as the animal becomes adult or aged ; and in the skulls 

 of the younger specimens it is broader, shorter, and the front edge 

 is broader and more truncated or straight, with only a slight round- 

 ing at the sides. 



The position of the grinders as regards the front part of the zygo- 

 matic arch is a good character for the distinction of the species, 

 especially if a series of skulls from animals of different ages, and 

 from the same locality, of each species are compared together ; and 

 it is the same with the rooting of the grinders themselves. But 

 when adult skulls of different species are compared together, the 

 forms of the skulls are so altered, the grinders generally so worn 

 and altered by age, and their position in different species so similar, 

 that the distinction of the species then becomes more difficult. 



The flap of thick bald skin produced beyond the hinder toes varies 

 in length as compared with the toes, in the length of it before it di- 

 vides into lobes, and the length of the lobes themselves in dif- 

 ferent species, and thus affords characters for their separation ; 

 but it is difficult to determine the proper length of it and its parts 

 from a preserved specimen in the Museum. It is apt to be unnatu- 

 rally stretched in length and width by the preparer, and it shrinks 

 as it dries long after it is placed in the Museum. 



If I am not deceived by the prepared skins, the flap appears to 

 be longer in the adult than in the young specimens ; and judging 

 from the specimens in the Museum, it is longest in OaUorhinus 

 ursinus, and it gradually becomes shorter in Arctocephalus antarcticus, 

 A. falklandicus, Phocarctos Hookeri, A. cinereus, Otaria jubata, and 

 A. nigrescens. It is very short in NeopTioca lohata and Eumetopias 

 Stelleri. 



The " Prodrome of a Monograph of the Pinnipedes," by Mr. Theo- 

 dore Gill, wherein he named several genera of this group, and a 

 paper by Dr. Peters on the Otarice of the Berlin Museum, in the 

 * Monatsbericht ' for May 1866, have induced me to reexamine the 

 skulls and skeletons in the British Museum. 



I may observe that Dr. Peters considers all the Eared Seals one 

 genus, but has divided them into seven subgenera, to each of which 

 he gives a distinctive name. Dr. Peters's paper is interesting as 

 determining the specimens described by Pander and D'Alton, Johann 

 Miiller, and other German naturalists, as well as describing the 

 more recently received specimens in the Berlin Museum, which 

 certainly is one of the most important on the Continent. 



Captain Thomas Musgrave, in a work entitled * Cast away on the 

 Aucklands,^ 12mo, 1866, pp. 141 and follo^dng, gives a very inter- 

 esting account of the habits and manners of the Lion-seal, showing 

 how unlike they are in their habits to the Seals vdthout ears (Pho- 

 cidae). The female brings forth her young far inland, and has to 

 teach them to take to the water which is to be their future home. 



Captain Weddell gives nearly the same account of the habits of 

 the Fur-Seal, as does also Mr. Hamilton (in Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1839, p. 87). 



Mr. J. A. Allen, in the * Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 



