102 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Fur- and Hair- Seals 



two Fur-Seals for which the " fishery" is chiefly established. 

 Capt. Abbot says that the Fur-Seals of the Falkland Islands 

 are of various colours — some grey, others blackish. There are 

 in the British Museum two most distinct species of Fur-Seal 

 from the Falklands, which must be of very different value, — 

 one the Otaria falklandica of Shaw, and the other 0. nigrescens. 

 All the five species of Sea-Bears or Eared Seals found in 

 South America have been called 0. falklandica. I will 

 proceed to distinguish them. 



I. Pennant describes the "Falkland-Island Seal," from a spe- 

 cimen 4 feet long, in the museum of the Koyal Society, thus : — 

 "Hair short, cinereous, tipped with dirty white ;" "grinders 

 conoid, with a small process on one side near the base." It is 

 to this description that Dr. Shaw applied the name of Phoca 

 falklandica (Gen. Zool. i. 256). This agi-ees with a speci- 

 men in the Museum in all particulars. It certainly is not the 

 dark blackish-brown Seal which I have described as the Arcto- 

 cejyJialus nigrescens ^ and which Dr. Peters calls 0. falklandica. 



A specimen of a Seal about 3 feet long has been in the 

 British Museum for several years. It was obtained from a 

 dealer as a Fur-Seal from the Falkland Islands. This skin is 

 mentioned in the ' Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum,' 

 at page 43, as ArctocepJialus falklandicus^ or " the skin of an 

 adult female without skull," believing that it was similar to 

 the specimen of the Falkland Seal that was in the Leverian 

 Museum, described by Pennant as above quoted, to which 

 description Shaw appended the name oi Phoca falklandica. 



Mr. P. Hamilton, in the ' Annals of Natm-al History ' for 

 1838, vol. ii. p. 81, t. 4, gives a history of the Fur-Seal of 

 commerce and an account of the catching of them. He depo- 

 sited two female specimens of this Seal in the Museum of the 

 University of Edinburgh. He says the two specimens are 

 nearly alike in every respect, and describes them thus : — " The 

 hair is very soft, smooth, and compact, of a brownish-black 

 colour towards the roots and a greyish-white towards the tips ; 

 it extends considerably beyond the fur, and gives the general 

 colouring to the hide. The fur itself is uniform brownish 

 white above, and of a somewhat deep brown colom- beneath, 

 and is quite wanting on the extremities. The colour of the 

 body is of a uniform whitish grey above, passing gradually 

 underneath into a reddish-white colour, which is deepest in the 

 abdominal region." This is certainly the Falkland Seal of 

 Pennant. Capt. Weddell says that the males of the Fur-Seals 

 are much larger than the females, an adult male measuring 

 6f feet, and the female not more than 3i feet in length. 



