1881.] PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE ELEPHANT SEAL. 147 



and widely opening the mouth, is so noticed by Peruetty '. It may 

 be remarked that the accuracy of Anson's figure as regards the atti- 

 tude assumed by the animal when attacked, though ridiculed by 

 Pe'ron, is fully vindicated by Mr. Moseley in his interesting account 

 of the Sea-Elephants of Kerguelen's Land -. 



The skull appears to be that of an adult but by no means aged 

 individual. The sutures between the basi-sphenoid and the basi- 

 occipital on the one side, and the presphenoid on the other, are both 

 still open, as in all the skulls of Elephant Seals I have yet examined. 

 The crowns of the teeth are moderately worn ; and the root of the 

 great upper canine has not yet closed in at the base, which, judging 

 from many specimens examined, it appears only to do in extreme 

 old age. 



Its relative size to that of other known skulls of animals of the 

 same species may be estimated by the following figures, giving the 

 length from the fore end of the premaxillaries to the occipital con- 

 dyles in millimetres : — 



milliin. 



Skull presented by Mr. Mansel, No. 3921 a 564 



The largest skull in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 



Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A., from Heard Island^ .... .510 

 Largest skull in the Museum of Natural History, Paris ^ . 508 

 Largest skull in the Berlin Museum, obtained in Kerguelen 



by the German Transit-of- Venus Expedition* 490 



Skull in Mus. Roy. Coll. Surgeons, No. 3921, locality 



unknown 4g3 



Skull in Mus. Roy. Coll. Surgeons, No. 3920, locality 



unknown 433 



Largest skull in the British Museum 380" 



' " Lorsqu'ils aper<,-oivent qiielqu'un approcher d'eui, ils s'elevent ordinaire- 

 ment sur leurs deux pattes-nageoii-es, tels qu'ou les voitdans la figure 1 PI. IX. 

 Ils ou^rent une gueule a reeevoir, aisemeiit una boule d'uu pied de diamettre • 

 et la tiennent aiusi beante, en gonflant I'espece de troniiJe qu'ils ont sur le 

 nez." — Hhtoire dun Voyage aux lies Maloiiines fait en ITfi.^ cf- 17()4, edit. 

 1770, tome ii. p. 4.5. The figure referred to is an unacknowledged copy of 

 that of Anson. A still older observer, W. Funnell, mate to Captain Damjjier, 

 says, speaking of the " Sea-Lion " (as it was then genei-ally called, because, as 

 the author conjectures, " his Roaring is not unlike that of the Lion ") of Juan 

 Fernandez, in 1703 : — " If they are hard pursued, they will turn about and 

 raise their Body up with their Fore-fins, and face you, standing with their 

 Mouth wide open upon their Guard : so that when we wanted to kill one to 

 make Oil, we used commonly to clap a Pistol .just to his Mouth, as it stood open, 

 and fire it down his Throat." — A Collection of Voyages, vol. iy. p. 15 (1729). 



^ Notes by a Naturalist on the ' Cballenger ' (1879), p. 201. 



^ J. A. Allen, ' History of North-American Pinnipeds' (1880), p. 748. 



* For this information I am indebted to Dr. H. Gervais. It was brought 

 home in 1831 by D'Orbigny. That figured in Blainville's ' Ost^ographie,' if 

 not the same specimen, is of the same dimensions. 



5 Kindly communicated to me by Dr. Peters. 



^ The Museum of the University of Oxford possesses the anterior portion of 

 the skull of a young male from Burchell's South-African collection, and the 

 complete skeleton of a still younger female. The species is at present not re- 

 presented in the excellent Osteological Museum at Cambridge. 



10* 



