56 Memorias de la Sociedad Científica 
“Je compte créer autant de genres qu'il me sera possible ” (!) 
me disait derniérement un de mes doctes amis, au sujet de 
Pouvrage qwil élabore en ce moment; “moi je ferai des espéces 
autant que je pourrai,” m'assurait, en dernier lieu, un autre 
entomologiste chargé d'un travail sur un autre ordre. De cette 
bonne envie je désire qu'il résulte un bien pour la science et 
plus de facilitó a Pétudier par nos successeurs. ” 
D'APRES J. A. ALLEN:' 
“From the foregoing it will be seen how widely opinions ha- 
ve differed respecting the number of species (of Otariidee) and 
their generic affinities among recent writers on this group 
and how unstable have been the views of the two leading (?) au- 
thorities in this field during the last ten or twelve years. Peters 
and Gray have both repeatedly during this time radically modi- 
fied their views respecting both the number of genera and spe- 
cies; groably, in the case of Gray at least, Gu 14 proporion to 
opinion shows, in a most emphatic manner, how imperfect our 
knowledge still is respecting the Otaries of the Southern He- 
misphere. (Risum teniatis). 
la One hundred and three distinct specific and varietal 
names have thus been bestowed upon sixteen species,* leaving 
eighty seven of the pames as synonyms, an average of about 
six to a species. Fourteen names appear to be wholly indeter- 
minable, while fourteen others can be referred only with more 
or less doubt. 
e ata The above summary is exclusive of the generic 
changes that have been rung on these sixteen species. Regar- 
ding each different generic combination as a synonym, would 
raise the total number of distinct names to probably nearly fowr 
1 History of North American Pinnipeds. Washington. 1880, p. 204. 
2 Of Phocida. . 
