Dr. J. E. Gray on Sea-bears. 267 



observed in New Zealand, Thunberg, in his list of Cape 

 mammalia in the third volume of the Transactions of the 

 St. Petersburg Academy, iii. 322, notices this animal vinder 

 the name of Phoca antarctica. (See Fischer, Syn. Mam. p. 242.) 

 Dr. Peters has applied the name of Otaria jnisiUa to this 

 species, believing it to be the Petit Phoque of Buffon, which has 

 been named PJioca j^usilla by Schreber, and had before been 

 named Phoca j^)arva by Boddaert. ButFon says that it came 

 either from India or the Levant ; but it is not by its descrip- 

 tion to be distinguished from a young specimen of almost any 

 of the species. It is as likely to have come from the Falk- 

 land Islands as from the Cape, as the French had traffic with 

 les lies Malouines, as they call them. 



Mr. Gill considers Steller's Sea-bear {Callorhinus iirsinus) 

 to be the type of M. F. Cuvier's genus Arctocephahis^ and 

 therefore abolishes CaUorkinus and gives the new name of 

 Halarctus to the true Arctocephali — thus unnecessarily adding 

 to the confusion of the generic names of these animals. He 

 fell into this mistake by not observing that Phoca tirsina, and 

 even Otaria wsina, liad been applied to several species, from 

 very different localities, that F. Cuvier established his genus 

 on the skull of P. ursina of Forster, from the Cape, which 

 he (M. Cuvier) had named Phoca Pelalandn, and that F. 

 Cuvier does not figure a skull of the Sea-bear of Steller : in- 

 deed the French collection did not at that time, nor does it 

 even now possess one ; and I feel assured that if it had, 

 F. Cuvier would, according to his custom, have established 

 for it a genus distinct from Arctoce^yhalus, the skulls of the two 

 genera being of such distinct forms. 



Dr. Peters, in his two papers on the Eared Seals (Otaria), 

 uses the length of the ears and the existence or non-existence 

 of the under-fur, as well as the characters used by Mr. Gill 

 and myself, to separate the species of these animals into sub- 

 genera. 



The length of the ears may probably afford good characters 

 for the separation of the species and groups, if they can be 

 observed in the living animals. As yet, only one species of 

 these animals, the Sea-lion or Sea-bear [Otaria leonina)^ has 

 been observed alive in Europe; so that Dr. Peters's notes 

 could only be derived from the examination of more or less 

 carefully preserved skins ; and, I fear, little dependence can be 

 placed on them. 



The length, abundance, and, indeed, the presence or ab- 

 sence of the under-fur greatly depend on the season at which 

 the specimen is obtained or observed. It is true that the 

 sealers call some seals hair- and others fur-seals ; but that is 



