of the Falkland Islands and Southern America. 103 



1. Ar otocephalus falklandicus. 

 Fur veiy soft, elastic ; hairs very short, exceedingly close, 

 slender at the base, thicker above, with close reddish imder- 

 fur nearly as long as the hair ; the upper surface pale, nearly 

 uniform grey, minutely punctulated with white ; hairs brown, 

 upper half black, with minute white tips. The nose, cheeks, 

 temples, throat, chest, sides, and underside of the body yellowish 

 white. 



Falkland Seal, Penn. Quad. ii. 



Phoca Falklandica, Shaw, Gen. Zool. i. p. 256 (from Pennant). 



Otaria Falklandica, Desm. Mamm. 252 (from Pennant ; not Peters or Bur- 



meister). 

 Otaria Shawii, Lesson, Diet. Class. d'H. N, xiii. p. 424 (from Pennant). 

 Arctocephalus FalMandicus, Gray, Cat. Mamm. in Brit. Mus., Seals, p. 42. 

 Fur-Seal of commerce (^Otaria falklandica), Hamilton, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 



Hist. 1838, ii. p. 81, t. 4 ; Jardine, Nat. Lib. vi. p. 271, t. 25 (not Peters). 



Hah. Falkland Islands. Brit. Mus. 



This is a most distinct species, and easily known from all 

 the other Fur-Seals in the British Museum by the evenness, 

 shortness, closeness, and elasticity of the fur, and the length of 

 the under-fur. The fur is soft enough to wear as a rich fur, 

 without the removal of the longer hairs, which are always 

 removed in the other Fur-Seals. Unfortunately the specimen 

 is without any skull ; and therefore I cannot give a description 

 of the teeth, or refer it to any of the restricted genera of Otariadce. 



In the British Museum there is a skull of a yomig Arcto- 

 cephalus (No. 311 a) like the skull of Capt. Abbot's specimen, 

 but in a much yomiger state. It was presented to the Museum 

 by Sir John Richardson as the " skull of the Fur-Seal from 

 the Falklands." The teeth in the skull belonging to Capt. 

 Abbot's skin are much larger than they are in the one received 

 from Sir John Bichardson. The fifth or last grinder in the series 

 of the lower jaw, that was being developed, but which had not 

 yet cut the gums or been raised above the alveolus, is divided 

 into three lobes, the middle lobe being the largest and most 

 external, the lateral ones being on the inner side of it. In Sir 

 John Bichardson's specimen, the same tooth in the lower jaw 

 is triangular, compressed, with regular, sloping, sharp-edged 

 sides, and has only a small lobe on the lower part of the 

 hinder edge, which is on the same plane as the rest of the 

 tooth. It looks like the skull of a large species. The tento- 

 rium of this skull of a young animal is well developed and bony. 

 If the habitat assigned to this skull is the correct one (and 

 I have no reason to doubt it) , it is probably the skull of a very 

 young Arctocephalus falkkmdicus, with the grey back and 

 white underside: it is certainly not the skull oi A. nujrescens. 



