1872.] DR. J. B. GRAY ON STEALER'S SEA-BEAR. 737 



2. Description of the younger Skull of S teller's Sea-bear 



{Eumetopias stelleri). By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



[Received June 3, 1872.] 



The skull here described was obtained by Mr. Gerrard, juu., along 

 with some skulls of animals from Japan (as, for example, the skull of 

 th* Japanese Dos) ; and he has no doubt that the whole collection 

 w„s made in Japan. If this theory is correct, it shows that Eume- 

 topias stelleri ranges from Behring's Straits to Japan. 



The genus Eumetopias has the hinder upper grinder directed 

 backwards, especially at the tip. This seems to be common 

 to the Sea-bears that have the hinder upper grinder placed far back 

 in the palate ; for it is common to this genus and Gypsophoca. This 

 does not seem to be the case in the skull figured by Dr. Peters under 

 the name of Arctophoca philippii, which is supposed to be allied to 

 it. I have not seen this latter skull ; but in a former paper I have 

 suggested that it may have lost its hinder pair of grinders ; for Phi- 

 lippi has lately figured a very similar skull with a pair of grinders 

 placed behind those figured by Dr. Peters, showing that the genus 

 Arctophoca was described from an imperfect skull of Gypsophoca. 



Eumetopias stelleri. 

 Sketch of head, to show the position of the ears. 



The adult skull of Eumetopias stelleri in the Paris Museum was 

 figured by Pander and D' Alton, but very badly, under the name of 

 Pkocajubata. This skull had been most unaccountably overlooked 

 by Nilsson and others, until Dr. Peters discovered it. The specimen 

 we received from Mr. Gurney from Monterey was figured by me under 

 the name of Arctocephalus monteriensis in the P. Z. S. 1859, pi. 72 ; 

 and at the same time I described the skull of a very young specimen 

 under the name of Arctocephalus californianus, which is now in the 

 British Museum. Allen, in his paper on the Eared Seals in the 

 Museum of Comparative Anatomy, has given a view of the under- 

 side and posterior end of the skull of a very old and of a middle-aged 

 male Seal, and some other details ; but I am not aware that a speci- 

 men in the medium stage between the adult and very young state has 

 ever been described or figured ; so that the receipt of the skull of 

 a specimen in that state, showing the peculiarities that occur during 

 the growth of the species, is as interesting as the description of a new 

 species ; and to illustrate these differences 1 have figured the sides 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1872, No. XLVII. 



