264 Dr. J. E. Gray on Sea-hears. 



Fiff. 8. Lateral view (ulnar) of cai-pal and metacarpal bones, right side*. 



Fic/. 9, Dorsal view of metacarpals and phalanges, left fore foot. 



Fiff. 10. Lateral view (radial) of the same. 



Fiff. 11. Inner view of bones of left hind foot. 



Fiff. 12. Eight hind foot, fibular view. 



Fiff. 13. Tibial ^iew of the same (the strigil bone being removed). 



Fore foot : — 



til. ulna. ;'s. pisiform. 



r. radius. viff. maonum. 



sc. scaphoid. an. unciform. 



/. lunar. tnc metacarpal. 



c. cuneiform. p/i. phalanx. 



Hind foot : — 



t. tibia. st. strigil bone. 



/. fibula. ic. internal cuneiform. 



cl. calcaneum. mc. middle „ 



cb. cuboid. .re external „ 



sc. scaphoid. rut. metatarsal, 



as. astragalus. h. hallux. 



The numbers 11. III. IV. V. indicate digits. 



XXX. — Additional Notes on Sea-hears (Otariadfe). 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.E.S. &c. 

 Professor Turner, of Edlnbnrgli, has kindly left with me for 

 examination three sknlls of a species of Sea-bear from " Tuesday 

 Bay, Desolation Island" (which is, no doubt, the Desolation 

 Land of the charts, on the south-west coast of Patagonia), and 

 a skull that was presented to the Anatomical Museum of the 

 University of Edinburgh by the late Professor Goodsir, who 

 received it, with the cranium of a Caffer, from Mr. C. Bell, as 

 a " seal-head from the Cape of Good Hope." 



The skulls from Desolation Island evidently belong to the 

 species which I have described as Euotaria ni(/rescens, the 

 usual Fur-Seal of the Falkland Islands and other parts of the 

 coast of vSouth-west America. 



Two of the skulls are from adult animals, are without the 

 lower jaws, and have only a few worn and broken teeth, 

 having been rolled on the beach. 



The other skull is of a young animal, exactly similar to the 



* The mechanism of the grasping-action of the fore foot appears to be 

 as follows : — The pisiform, by the contraction of the large palmar muscle, 

 is brought into a line with the long axis of the forearm ; the flexor 

 muscles contract ; but the third metacarpal cannot be brouo-ht into a 

 position of less than a right angle with the pisiform, owing to the 

 impingement of the downward process of the unciform against the latter 

 bone ; the ungual phalanges, however, of the two functional digits, free 

 to act, are drawn down into apposition against the vicarious pollex. 



