1884.] 



SEA-LION FROM AUSTRALIA. 



191 



enumerated Arcfocephdliis cinereits among the species whicli, in his 

 judgment, ouglit to be referred to the genus Arctocephaliis, proposed 

 by Frederic Cuvier in 1824. Tlie species is due to a brief descrip- 

 tion by Peron, who stayed from December 1802 to February 1S03 

 at an island off the S. coast of Austraha, near Adelaide, which the 

 French explorers called Isle Decrcs, but which is laid down on modern 

 maps as Kangaroo Island. After describing the numbers of Kanga- 

 roos, he proceeds : — " Parnii les Phocaces nombreux qui peuploient 

 les rivages de I'ile, on distinguoit surtout une noiivelle espece du 

 genre Otarie {Otaria cinerea, N.) qui parvient a la longueur de 30 a 

 32 decimetres [9 a 10 pieds]. Le poil de cet animal est tres court. 



Fig. 3. 



Ofaria cinerea, § ; side view of skull. 



tres dur, et tres grossier ; mais son cuir est cpals et fort, et I'huile 

 qu'on prepare avec sa graisse est aussi bonne qu'abondante. Pour 

 I'un et I'autre rapport, la peche de cet amphibie ofFriroit de pre- 

 cieux avantages ; il en est de meme de quelques autres especes de 

 Phocaces [)lus petites qu'on trouve egalement en tres-graud nombre 

 sur ces bords, et qui portent des fourrures de bonne qualite."^ 



Peron, as is well known, did not live to write the work on the 

 Otariido! for which he had made preparations, and he brought home 

 no specimens, or, if he did, they have long since disappeared. His 

 brief notice of the Otaria which he intended to call 0. cinerea tells 

 us nothing except that the animal was what is called a " Hair Seal," 

 for he contrasts it with others which possessed abundant underfur. 



Ten years afterwards an Otaria was captured near Port Western In 

 Buss's Straits, during the voyage of the 'Astrolabe.' MM. Quoy and 



' Peron, ' Voyage de decouvertes aux Ten-es Australes ' (4to, Paris, 1810), ii 

 p. 77. 



