﻿198 



Transactions. — Zoology. 



Old. 



Young 



9-6 



7-5 



4-5 



3-5 



1-2 



•8 



1-6 



-. — 



•6 



•6 



5-0 



3-5 



6-0 



4-0 



6-8 



— 



5-0 



3-5 



Extreme length of skull along the base 

 Length of palate 

 Width at first molar 

 ■ „ fi:fth „ 



,, of posterior aperture 

 Breadth of face at ear bones 



,, at zygomatic arch 

 Leng-th of lower jaw 

 Width across condyles 



Lower jaw moderate, with a blunt hook-like process projecting oa the 

 inner side in front and below the condyle. 



The short palate places this seal in the genus Arctocephalus (as distin- 

 guished from Otaria), of which genus ten species are mentioned in Dr. Gray's 

 " Catalogvie of Seals and Whales." 



Of these it most nearly approaches, in some characters, A . Hooheri, such 

 as in the form of the base of the skull, and white colour of the basal pai-t of 

 the fur. There are, however, several important points in which it does not 

 agree with this seal, such as the pointed nose and genei'al colour of the surface ; 

 and as there is no mention in Dr. Gray's work of an Eared Seal having 

 reached Europe from New Zealand, it is possible that this may prove to be 

 an undescribed species, or pei'haps one of several that appear to be known 

 very imperfectly from their skins alone. It is, however, now certain that it 

 is a very different animal from the true Eur Seal of the Falkland Islands, 

 Otaria nigrescens, with which it has been confounded by the sealers, according 

 to Dieffenbach "New Zealand," Vol. II., p. 182. The difficulty of deter- 

 mining from descriptions the different eared seals may be judged of from the 

 fact, that while Dr. Gray divides them into twelve species, he gives a list of 

 more than 100 synonyms, under which the same animals have been described 

 by different persons. 



[The officers of H.M.S. 'Blanche' have presented to the Colonial Museum, 

 since the above was written, the skull and skin of the head of a young Fur 

 Seal which they shot in the month of October at the Auckland Islands. 

 They described it as quite a small seal of a jet glossy black with very soft fur. 

 The form of the muzzle and ear conch is identical with the young seals I have 

 seen of the species above described, from the west coast of Otago, so that there 

 is no reason to doubt its being the same species. The skull is thei-efore 

 valuable for comparison, as it shows how well the essential chai^acters are 

 preserved. The chief difference is found, as might be anticipated, in the 



* Specimen obtained in the Auckland Islands by oificers of H.M.S. ' Blanche.' 



