108 DR.J.MURIE ON THE SEALS OF THE FALKLANDS. (Jan. 28, 
the water’s edge; the young, however, does not enter the water for 
some time. At the earliest stage the baby Seals are like so many 
puppy dogs, fat, plump, and shapeless. They play, fight, and frisk 
about in twos and threes, at times dabbling and floundering in the 
shallow pools left by the receding tide. Suckling continues until 
they are about three months old, at which period the mother entices 
them by degrees towards and into the water. From that time the 
young begin to cater for themselves. In youth, as has been shown, 
the skin is of a dark brown hue. This changes very gradually, and 
lightens after they are a year old; it then seems sensibly to alter 
annually by a partial shedding of the coat. The males remain 
darkest, and have always the longest hair throughout life. 
No lean animals are ever observed. 
There appears to be a periodical migration towards the south. In 
November the Sea-lions come to the Falkland Islands, where they 
remain till June or July, when the greater number depart ; but some 
remain at the islands the whole year round. 
With respect to certain doubtful specific forms of the genus 
Otaria which Dr. Peters and Dr. Gray have named, I must say I 
do not entirely agree with their determination. 
I differ from Dr. Gray in ranking the skin described by him in the 
‘Annals of Natural History,’ 1868, i. p. 219, as a distinct species— 
his Arctocephalus nivosus. This I believe to be but a variety, 
seasonal, sexual, or of a different age from those specimens hitherto 
obtained. 
Also I do not acquiesce in his critical remark that Dr. Peters’s 
figured skull of Otaria philippii is most nearly allied to O. stellert 
from California, inasmuch as I consider it to be nothing else than 
O. hookeri. As in Dr. Gray’s case, I have not seen the skull, 
but base my judgment on a careful comparison of Dr. Peters’s 
figure with the British-Museum specimens of skulls named O. 
hookeri. 
On the other hand, I unhesitatingly agree and support Dr. Gray’s 
criticisms on Dr. Peters as regards the species of Sea-lions termed 
respectively O. byronia, O. leonina, O. godeffroyi, and O. ulloe, as 
I am perfectly convinced they are but differently aged specimens of 
Foster’s Otaria jubata. From the manner in which Dr. Peters 
ranges these in his tabular view, I have no doubt that he has arrived 
at the same determination, although still clinging somewhat to his 
own nomenclature. 
P.S.—The fresh information gained, and the clearing of dubious 
points, in connexion with the Otariide, which the preceding report 
conveys, may be summed up as follows :— 
1. The young of both sexes of Otaria jubata are alike of a dark 
brown or very deep chocolate colour. 
2. The males of a year old or thereabout retain somewhat of the 
chocolate tint of youth, which, however, is paler, and subsequently 
changes annually as the coat is shed. 
3. The females of equal age assume a dark grey hue dorsally, 
