286 Notices of Memoirs — Br. P. L. Sclater — 



II. Distribution of Pinnipeds. — The Pinnipeds, wbicli I will take 

 first, comprise three distinct families — the Otariidte, the TrichechidEe, 

 and the Phocid^. Beginning with the Otariidge or Eared Seals, 

 commonly known as Sea-lions and Sea-bears, we find the greater 

 number of the species confined to the South Polar Ocean, where 

 they pass most of their time at sea, but, as is well known, resort to 

 the land at certain seasons for breeding purposes. In the Atlantic 

 Ocean, so far as 1 know, the Eared Seals have never been ascertained 

 to occur further north than the estuary of the La Plata on the 

 American coast, and the vicinity of the Cape on the African coast. 

 But in the Pacific, on the contrary, three distinct species of Otaria 

 are found all over the Arctic portion of that ocean, and there are 

 well-founded traditions of Eared Seals having been formerly met 

 with in the Galapagos, while they still occur on the coast of Peru 

 and Chili. I think, therefore, we may assume that Otaria was 

 originally an Antarctic form, but has travelled northwards along 

 the West American coast and is now firmly established in the North 

 Pacific. In a parallel way in the class of birds, the Albatrosses 

 (Diomedea), which are essentially a group of the Antarctic seas, are 

 represented by three distinct species in the North Pacific. 



The second family of the marine Carnivora, on the other hand, 

 the Walruses (Trichechidge), are entirely Arctic in their distribution ; 

 one species (Trichechus rosniarus) being peculiar to the North 

 Atlantic, while a second nearly allied species (T. ohesus) takes its 

 place in the Northern Pacific. 



The third family of Pinnipeds is more numerous and varied, 

 both in genera and species, than the two preceding, and has a more 

 extended range. The Seals (Phocidae), embracing about nine difl:erent 

 generic forms, are most numerous in the Arctic and Antarctic seas, 

 but are also feebly represented in some intermediate localities. 

 Beginning with the North Atlantic, we find several species oi Plioca 

 inhabiting various parts of this area, and the Grey Seal (Halichoerus) 

 and the Bladder-Seal [Cystophora) exclusively confined to it. In 

 the North Pacific all the tour true Seals belong to the genus Plioca^ 

 and three of them are identical with the North Atlantic species, but 

 when we descend as far south as the Gulf of California on the 

 American coast we meet with a species of Sea-elephant (MacrorJiinus) 

 which, like Otaria, has no doubt penetrated up here thus far from 

 its ancestral abode in the Antarctic Ocean. 



Ee turning to the Central Atlantic, we find two species of Seals 

 inhabiting these waters, both belonging to the same genus Monachis. 

 One of these {M. albiventer) inhabits the Mediterranean and the 

 adjoining coasts of the Atlantic, while the other (If. tropicalis) is in 

 these days restricted to some of the smaller and less known islands 

 of the West Indies. 



The Phocid^ of the Antarctic Ocean all belong to genera distinct 

 from the Arctic forms and more nearly allied to Monachus, the Seal 

 of the Mid- Atlantic. They are of four species belonging to as many 

 genera : Ogmorhinus, Lobodon, Leptonychotes, and Ommatophoca. 

 Besides these the Sea-elephant of the whalers (Maa-orhiuus) is 



