74 . NATUKAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Nothing further respecting the breeding habits or sexual relations of the species appears to 

 have been as yet recorded, but they may be presumed to be similar to those of the Sea Elephant 

 of the Antarctic Seas.' 



COMPARISON WITH THE SOUTHERN SEA ELEPHANT. So far as can be determined by descrip- 

 tions, Ihe Northern and the Southern Sea Elephants 2 differ very little in size, color, or other 

 external features. Captain Scanimon gives the average length of the full grown male of the 

 northern species as twelve to fourteen feet, and says that the largest he ever measured had a length 

 of twenty-two feet "from tip to tip." P&ron gives the length of the 'southern species as twenty to 

 twenty-five, and even thirty feet, with a circumference of fifteen to eighteen feet. Anson gives 

 the length as twelve to twenty feet, and the circumference as eight to fifteen feet. Pernety records 

 the total length as twenty-five feet. Scammon gives the length of the young of the northern 

 species, at birth, as four feet; and P6ron gives four or five feet as the length of the young at birth 

 for the southern species. The skeletons of the two old males of the southern species, already 

 mentioned, allowing for the intervertebral cartilages that have disappeared in maceration, measure 

 respectively not over fifteen and sixteen feet, adding to which the length of the hind flipper and 

 the proboscis gives a total length, from "tip to tip," of about twenty-one to twenty -two feet. From 

 the foregoing we may infer that the usual difference in size between the two species is not great, 

 the southern species on the whole appearing to be somewhat the larger of the two. It would seem 

 that tlie Northern and Southern Sea Elephants, though presumably distinct, are closely allied, as 

 well iu structural characters as in habits. In respect to geographical distribution, I am not aware 

 that the southern species has been found north of about the 35th degree of south latitude (the 

 Island of Juan Fernandez), or the northern species south of about the 24th degree of north latitude. 

 It may consequently be safely assumed that the two forms have been long isolated, and that the 

 southern is an offshoot from northern stock, since the only other known species of the Cystophorina 

 is also northern in its distribution. 



1 It is here :i-siin,i-il that the Sea Elephants of the Southern Hemisphere arc all referable to a single species, the 

 I'hoca leonina of l.inm''. 1758, based on the Sea Lion of Lord Ausou, which was renamed 1'lioca elejilianliiia by Molina, 

 1782, and a^ain renamed Plioca prultoecitlea by Perou, in 181(>, and of which I'hoca Ilijroni of Desmarest, and also Plioca 

 Ansoni of tin' same author (the latter species in part only), and the Mirounr/a patagomca of Gray are synonyms. I am 

 a ware, however, that Peters has recently proposed the recognition of four species, namely, Cystopliora leonina (= Alison's 

 Sea l.iuiii. C. falklandica (=Peruely's Sea Lion), V. proboscidea (ejc Peron), and C. kei-g mini sin (the Sea Elephant of 

 Kergiielen Island). He seems nut, however, to have arrived at this course by an examination of an extensive snitr of 

 fs|"-i 'linens from various localities, as he refers in this connection to only a single old male example from Kergoelen 

 Inland. He seems to have been influenced merely by the varying statements in respect to size and some other features 

 given by Pernety, An.sou, and Pe>on. His entire presentation of the caste is as follows: "Perncty gibt von seinem 

 Seeliiw en cine lame Mahne, cine Totalliingc von 25 Fuss mid eiuein Durcliniesser tier Basis der Ki'k/.iiline von ;i Zoll au. 

 Pelons See-Elephautrn solleu bis 30 Fuss laug mill von blaugrauer Farbe sein. Vielleicht siml nlle diese Arten 

 viTsvhiedfii nnd es wiirde dann der Name C. leouiita L. blossdcm AIISOII'M lirn Serliiuen /. belasseir sein. wiihrend die >.'. 

 1'iilklaiiiliin, \vii- man die von P. rnety lienenneii kotiDte, die C. proboscidia I'cron, die C. anijtironlrig Gill der iiordlichcn 

 Ilrmisphiin- mid ilie von Kergiiul<;iilaiid besoudereu Arten ungi<lii>reii wiirden. Fiir den letztercn Fall srlilage ich vor, 

 die se Art keryuflemiui zu beuemuieii." (Monat.sh. d. K. P. Akad. Wisseiisch. zu Berlin lH7f), p. :','.)!, toot-note). 



The Sea Elephants appear to be exceptional among the I'hvcidte iu the great disparity of size brtwei-n (he sexes, 

 in which, as well as iu their breeding habits, they closely resemble the Otaries. Although, unlike the latter, they 

 have not i In' power of using the hind limbs in locomotion on land, and are hence unable to walk, tlu-y mauage to 

 crawl to a considerable distance from the sea according to Scammou, a "half a mile or more." The habits of the 

 Southern Sea Elephant ( Afacrorhinug teotiiiiim) were long since described by Alison and Pernety, and later by P6ron, 

 but their accounts seem in some respects to be tinged with romance. According to these writers the males fight 

 desperately for the possession of the females. 



