4. AECIOCEPHAITTS. 23 



and, on more careful examination of the skin, I have little douht, 

 from the colour and the character of the fur, that it is a young spe- 

 cimen of the Seal that I described as Arctocephalus nigrescens. It 

 is interesting as confirming the accuracy of the habitat that I received 

 with that specimen, and which untU this time I considered doubt- 

 ful, as Pennant and others describe the Falkland Island Fur-Seal 

 as grey, and white beneath. 



Dr. Peters, on the authority of this habitat (which I have always 

 quoted with doubt), has given the name of Arctophoca falMandica ' 

 to the animal and skull on which I had established my Ardo- 

 e&phaliis nigrescens. 



In the British Museum there is the skia of a very young Seal, 

 which was presented by Sir John Richardson as the Falkland 

 Island Fur-Seal, with the observation appended that the adult is 

 5 feet long, and its skin is worth fifteen dollars. It is without its 

 skuU. The fur of this young Seal is dark brown, reddish beneath, 

 and very like that of the young specimen sent by Capt. Abbott ; but 

 the hairs are smoother, and the white tips to them are longer and 

 more marked, giving the animal a more grizzled appearance. 



There is another young Eared Seal, very like the former, which 

 was received with General Hardwicke's Collection (who, no doubt, 

 purchased it of a dealer), said to have come from the Cape of Good 

 Hope. I suspect this habitat must be erroneous ; for it is very un- 

 like what I recollect of the young Cape Eared Seals, which are 

 called " Black Dogs," on account of the blackness of their colour. 

 Unfortunately we have no specimen of the latter in the Museum 

 collection. General Hardwicke's specimen only differs from Sir 

 John Richardson's in being less punctulated with white; fewer 

 hairs have a white tip, and the tip is shorter. 



Both these young specimens differ from the half-grown one obtained 

 from Capt. Abbott, in the fur being softer and smooth to the touch ; 

 and Capt. Abbott's specimen differs from the adult in the length and 

 greater crispness of its fur, the fur of the old one being harsh and 

 hard and closer pressed. 



In the first essay. Dr. Peters places Phoca falMandica, Shaw, 

 and Otaria nigrescens together, with doubt, observing that one was 

 known from the skin, and the other by the skuU, overlooking the 

 fact that the name nigrescens implied that I had seen the colour of 

 the fur, which was not that given by Shaw to his animal ; in his 

 second essay. Dr. Shaw's, Dr. Burmeister's, and my animal are all 

 classed together without any doubt. 



The skuU of Capt. Abbott's Fur-Seal from the Falkland Islands 

 shows that it was a very young animal, which had only developed its 

 first grinders, the permanent series being developed below them. 

 The tentorium is bony and weU developed. The teeth are the same 

 in position and number as they are in the adult skuU; and the 

 upper ones, as far as developed, are small and conical, except the 

 fifth upper grinder, which is largest, triangular, with a single sub- 

 conical lobe on the base of the hinder edge of the cone. The lower 

 canines are small, scarcely larger than the cutting-teeth, which are 



