26 OTAKIAD^. 



N. S. 1888, ii. p. 81, t. 41 ; Jardine, Nat. Lib. vi. p. 271, t. 26 (not 



Otarie de P&on, Blainmlle, Joum. de Physique, xci. p. 298 ; Cuvier, 



Oss. Fossihs, v. p. 220. 

 Otaria Houvillii, Lesson, Diet. Class. d'S. N. xiii. 425. 

 Phoca Houvillii, Fischer, Syn. Mam, p. 164. These three names 



are all from the same animal. 



Inhab. Falkland Islands (^66o« ; B.M.); New Georgia. 



This is a most distinct species, and easily known from all the other 

 Fur-Seals in the British Museum by the evenness, shortness, close- 

 ness, and elasticity of the fur, and the length of the imder-fur. The 

 fur is soft enough to wear as a rich fur without the removal of the 

 longer hairs, which are always removed in the other Fur-Seals. 

 Unfortunately the specimen is without any skull ; and therefore I 

 cannot give a description of the teeth, or refer it to any of the re- 

 stricted genera of Otariadoe. 



Mr. E. Hamilton, in the 'Annals of Natural History ' for 1838, ii. 

 p. 81, t. 4, gives the history of the Fur-Seals of commerce and the 

 method of catching them ; and he deposited two specimens in the 

 Museum of Edinburgh, which had been procured by Capt. Weddel. 

 Mr. Abbott having informed me that what I had described under the 

 name oi Arctocephalus falMandicus is not now found in the Falkland 

 Islands, and Mr. Bartlett having shown me an imperfect skin of the 

 same species, which he had obtained from a fur-monger, who in- 

 formed him that such fur-skins were only received from the Arctic 

 part of the Pacific Ocean, I was induced to request Mr. Archer, 

 director of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, to allow me 

 to examine the Seals described by Mr. Hamilton, which, on exami- 

 nation, proved to be my Aretoc&phaliiis jfalJclandicus, only difiering 

 from the Museum specimen in the fur being considerably darker and 

 harsher ; and, from Capt. Weddel's account as given in the ' Annals,' 

 these specimens came from South Georgia or South Shetland. These 

 Seals, which were brought from the Antarctic Ocean, may formerly 

 have inhabited the Falkland Islands, and, like the Sea-lion found 

 there by Pernetty, have been destroyed or driven away. Arctoce- 

 jphdlus ffooJceri is said to be now found in the Antarctic Ocean and 

 the Falkland Islands. In that case it may be the Falkland-Island 

 Seal of Pennant. 



The A. falhlandimis is very like the Fur-Seal from Australia {H. 

 dnereus) in the length of the under-fur as compared with the length 

 of the hairs, and also in the colour of the under-fur and hair ; but 

 the fur is much softer, and its general colour is much darker, both 

 above and below. 



Pennant describes the " Falkland-Island Seal " from a specimen 

 4 feet long, in the museum of the Koyal Society, thus : — " Hair short, 

 cinereous, tipped with dirty white ; " " grinders conoid, with a small 

 process on one side near the base." It is to this description that Dr. 

 Shaw applied the name of Phoca falhlandiea (Gen. Zool. i. p. 2S6), 

 This agrees with a specimen in the Museum in aU particulars. It 

 certainly is not the dark blackish-brown Seal which I have described 



