102 



series of materials for ornithologists that has been but rarely equalled 

 by the collection of any other naturalist of late years. We are 

 therefore well warranted in designating this singular bird in honour 

 of Mr. Hodgson, as showing our appreciation of his labours in the 

 cause of ornithological science. 



Enicurus nigrifrons, Hodgs. 



Black ; upper tail-coverts, a band across the middle of each wing, 

 the base of the middle feathers and the two outer feathers of tail, 

 and under surface white ; the throat and breast mottled with black 

 and white ; bill black ; legs pale yellow. 



Total length 6", wings 2" 11'", tarsi 1". 



This species is easily distinguished from all the rest of the species 

 of Enicurus by the black forehead and mottled breast. 



6. On the Sea Bear of Foster, the Ursus marinus of 

 Steller, Arctocephalus ursinus of Authors. By Dr. 

 Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., P. Ent. Soc. 



(Mammalia, PL LXVIII.) 



Steller figures and describes a large Seal under the name of Ursus 

 marinus (Nov. Comm. Petrop. ii. 331, t. 15), which is the author- 

 ity for the Ursine Seal of Pennant (Quad. ii. 526) and Phoca iirsina 

 of Schreber, Gmelin, and most succeeding authors. 



Forster, in Cook's ' Second Voyage' (ii. 203), appears to speak of 

 the same animal under the name of " Sea Bear." 



I had not been able to see a specimen of this species in any of 

 the Museums which I had examined on the Continent or in En- 

 gland, or to find a skull of the genus from the Northern Pacific 

 Ocean ; yet I felt so assured, from Steller' s description and the geo- 

 graphical position, that it must be distinct from the Eared Fur-Seals 

 from the Antarctic Ocean and Australia, with which it has been 

 usually confounded, that in my ' Catalogue of Seals in the Col- 

 lection of the British Museum,' I regarded it as a distinct species 

 under the name of Arctocephalus ursinus, giving an abridgment of 

 Steller's description as its specific character. 



The British Museum has just received, under the name Otaria 

 leonina, from Amsterdam, a specimen of the Sea Bear from Behring's 

 Straits, which was obtained from St. Petersburg. It is evidently 

 not an Otaria, but a true Arctocephalus, and agrees in all its cha- 

 racters with the Sea Bear, TJrsus marinus of Steller, and not with 

 the Sea Lion or Leo marinus of that author, which is called Otaria 

 stelleri in my catalogues, and was confounded with Otaria leonina 

 of the Southern Pacific Ocean by Nilsson and most modern authors. 

 The latter animal is still a desideratum in the British Museum and 

 other European Collections. 



The skin is 8 feet long, and agrees in all particulars with Steller's 



