668 MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. [Dec. 7, 
Let us now compare the description by John Reinhold Forster 
to which reference is so frequently made*. 
March 31,1773. [Cook had landed at Dusky Bay, 5 days pre- 
viously. | 
Fig. 8. 
Otaria forsteri, nasal bones. 
Puoca ursina, L. (Drawing G +.) 
Seal with ears; hands free; feet webbed on the under surface, 
naked between the fingers, hardly nailed. 
This species of Seals, in my opinion, most nearly resembles Phoca 
ursina ; but itis much smaller, and differs in a few points. Its habits 
are gregarious: males, females, and cubs live together on rocks sur- 
rounded by the sea in Dusky Bay. They are timid, and fling them- 
selves off the rocks into the sea at the approach of man; the older 
animals, however, if wounded, or surrounded so completely that 
escape is impossible, bite the weapons with which they are attacked ; 
nay, more, they venture to attack, in the water, the boat that is pur- 
suing them. They swim with such rapidity under water, that a 
boat rowed by six strong men can scarcely keep up with them. 
They are extremely tenacious of life; for after they had been pierced 
by ball in many places, and even through the head, they yet conti- 
* Descriptiones Animalium, ed. Lichtenstein, 8vo, Berlin, 1844, p. 64. 
3 Figura picta G.” This refers to the drawings by hisson, described below, 
p. 671. 
