iio? 



hills, they have been driven there. It is most wonderful to see the 

 rapidity with which they can ascend mountains, and although they 

 descend quickly I never saw one lose its footing. After they have 

 been pursued for some time on the hills and driven on to the plains, 

 they will frequently make a charge past you at about 100 yards 

 distance in preference to ascending the steep parts again, thus show- 

 ing their preference for level ground. They are almost always seen 

 in the neighbourhood of lakes or ponds in the unfrequented spots 

 which are usually beyond the sportsman's beat. 



2. On the Sea-Lions, or Lobos marinos of the Spaniards, 

 ON THE Coast of California. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., 

 V.P.Z.S., P.E.S. &c. 



(Mammalia, PI. LXXII.) 



Mr. John H. Gurney has kindly presented to the British Museum, 

 along with a very interesting series of Crustacea, and the skins of 

 some birds and animals from California, two skulls of Seals from that 

 coast. One is the skull of a young Arctocephalus, belonging to a 

 skin which Mr. Gurney gave to the Museum a year or more ago ; 

 and the other is a very fine adult skull of that genus, which is la- 

 belled— 



" Skull and tongue bones of the Californian Sea-Lion (Spanish 

 Lobo marino) taken near Monterey. — A. S. Taylor, July 1858." 



This skull is as large as, and very like in external appearance to, 

 the skull of the adult Otaria leonina, or Southern Sea-bear of the 

 southern part of the west coast of America, which we have in the 

 British Museum from the coast of Chili. 



These two large skulls are easily distinguished, and, when they 

 are more closely examined, prove to belong to two different genera. 

 The Californian skull has the short flat palate, contracted behind, of 

 the genus Arctocephalus, and the other the very long deeply concave 

 palate, nearly as wide behind as in front, of the genus Otaria. It 

 also has the high nose, with a nearly horizontal facial line over the 

 nose, of the former genus, instead of the low nose shelving towards 

 the edge of the upper jaw of the Otaria or Sea-lion of Chili. 



The adult skull is more than double the size of the adult skulls of 

 the other species of Arctocephali which we have in the Museum Col- 

 lection, and shows the existence of a Seal of a very large size in these 

 seas, — as large as the Sea-lion of Chili. 



It is not improbable that the skin sent some time ago, and the skull 

 belonging to it now sent, may be the young of this species ; though 

 the skin is so like that of Arctocephalus nigrescens, that we were in- 

 duced to regard it, before we received the skull, as a second specimen 

 of that species. But the skull of the original specimen of that Seal 

 shows that the adult animal and skull are not nearly half the size 

 of the animal and skull of the Lobo marino of Monterey. 



