14 



I arrive, by a careful analysis of the researches of certain modern 

 authors of great experience in such matters, at the following general 

 but singularly conclusive results, namely : 

 Dr. Peters 1 considers nigrescens and Philippii Falklandicus of Sham 



also dnereus ontarctieus. 

 Mr. Allen 2 nigrescens, cinereus, antarcticus, 



Forsteri and Philippii do. 



Dr. Bunneister 3 Philippii =. do. 



Mr. Sclater 4 nigrescens ~ do. 



Capt. Abbott 5 nigrescens = do. 



From these deliberate expressions of opinion, I am led to conclude 

 that, if these zoologists are correct in their views, the whole series of 

 the species of the Southern Fur Seals, denned with such precision in the 

 British Museum Catalogue and Supplement, with the exception of Dr. 

 Gray's Falkland Island Fur Seal, merge into the one, the Arctocephalus 

 Falklandicus of Shaw ; if otherwise, the difficulty, even among the 

 most proficient, of discriminating species correctly, is so palpably dis- 

 played, that not only a disagreeable impression of unreliableness for 

 the method of determination is stamped on the mind, but that no 

 positive conclusions can possibly be drawn from principles so imperfect 

 in themselves, from the slight and inconstant nature of their characters. 



Next, let the size and external colouring of the most familiarly known 

 animals, which locate the numerous and by no means widely apart 

 spots which stud the Southern Seas, be contemplated seriatim, and I 

 think it will be admitted that the similarity, inter se, revealed by both 

 of these properties, will likewise corroborate by their concurrent testi- 

 mony the probable unity of the many so-called species. 



The Sea Bears, which inhabit the Falkland Islands, " have the hair 

 short, cinereous, tipped with dirty white ; length, 4 feet " Phoca 

 falklandica, Shaw. "Blackish-brown, grey-black" Arctoc. nigrescens, 

 Gray. " The full-grown seal is about the size of the common English 

 seal ; the hair differs in colour, being sometimes grey, and at other 

 times of a brownish tint ; that of the young is of a darker brown 

 colour." Abbott. 



South Shetland Islands. " Nothing is more astonishing than the dis- 

 proportion in the size of the male and female ; a large grown male is 

 six feet nine inches, while the female is not more than three and a half 

 feet ; the young are at first black, but after a few weeks they become 

 grey." Weddell. 



Island of Juan Fernandez. "They are the size of an ordinary calf; 

 their hair is of different colours, as black, brownish-grey, and spotted. 

 Dampier. " Above dark-grey, more greyish on the head and neck, 

 brownish- white beneath." Otaria Philippii. Peters. 



1 Professor W. Peters, Berlin. 



2 Professor J. A. Allen, Cambridge, America. 



3 Museum, Buenos Ayrea. 



4 Secretary to Zoological Society of London. 

 9 Proceedings Zool. Soc., Lond., 1868. 



