58 EDWARD A. WILSON. 
Whereas if the habits of the Otariide are examined, we find that :— 
In Arctocephalus forsteri the young is suckled for 5 months, during which it completes a natal 
moult before it takes to water. 
In Arctocephalus hooker, the young is suckled for 5 months, and a natal moult is completed before it 
enters the water. 
In Callorhinus ursinus, the young one is suckled for 8 months, and during the first month undergoes 
a natal moult before entering the water. 
Now, in the case of Macrorhinus, we are told (Lydekker) that the young are left 
lying on the beach for as much as 6 or 7 weeks before entering the water, a period 
which is longer than in any other case concerning which evidence is forthcoming 
among the Phocidx, and a period which is far more suggestive of the habits of the 
Otarvide. We are told, on the other hand, by Professor Scott (in the “Trans. N.Z. 
Inst.,” 1xi., Nov., 1880) that the young are suckled only for three weeks, and that they 
are born in a black woolly coat, which is shed in a week, the coat which succeeds 
it being also black. These accounts appear to disagree, for the young would surely 
enter the water as soon as their mothers finally deserted them, but on this point 
Professor Scott is silent. 
Furthermore, attention may be drawn to the period of gestation, which seems to 
be appreciably longer in the case of the eared seals than in the earless. More observa- 
tions on this point are wanted, and it may be objected that such as we have are insuffi- 
cient to argue from, but so far as they go they tend to place Macrorhinus at the 
Otarian end of the Phocidg# rather than, as Professor Flower would have us to do, as 
far as possible from them. 
PERIODS OF GESTATION. 
Phoca vitulina _... Nile dies ‘ve diss se 9 months (Reeks). 
Phoca grenlandica Pe det nee fas ws 9 months (Allen). 
Halicherus grypus ie ‘ei ee me ie 9 months. 
Leptonychotes weddelh ... ais a a sa 10 months. 
Erignathus barbatus oe i oy gg oe 10 to 11 months (Collett). 
Macrorhinus leoninus _... th ie tea ane 11 months. 
Callorhinus ursinus ate wi so ae eh 11 months, 20 days. 
Arctocephalus forstert —... ii = a a 11 to 12 months. 
Arctocephalus hookeri iss ‘aig e oe ee 12 months. 
With regard to the presence of an under fur in Macrorhinus, as noticed by Gray, 
I have not been able to draw any definite conclusion. Having had no opportunity of 
examining the new-born young, the hairs of young adult animals have been my only 
material for investigation, and I have been unable to see anything approaching the 
character of “under fur” in them. Should there be such a thing, it affords one more 
point of similarity between Macrorhinus and Ommatophoca, as well as between 
Macrorhinus and the Otaride. 
The position of the external nares is a point which does not seem to be highly 
specialised in A©acrorhinus for a life in the water. They are by no means so high on 
the nose, nor do they open upwards so much as in the more specialised Phocide, for 
