42 HAND-LIST OP SEALS, MOESES, 



on the Eared Seals, and shows the inaccuracies of his predecessors. 

 He describes one species, Otaria SieUeri, and observes that the plate 

 of the entire animal was drawn from a living animal in Japan. It 

 is very unlike the living animal of the family figured by Forster, 

 and that was alive in the Zoological Society's Gardens. The fins look 

 much more as if they were from a stuffed specimen made by a man 

 who never saw a living Sea-bear. He figures the skeleton and three 

 skulls as diiferent ages of the same species, calling one (t. 22. f. 1, 2) 

 from a very old, tlie second (t. 22. f. 3, 4) from an adult, and the 

 third (t. 22. f. 5, 6) from a middle-aged specimen — I suppose, all 

 from Japan ; but I do not see it so stated. The first two have only 

 five upper grinders and very differently shaped heads ; the third has 

 six upper grinders and is a Gypsophoca. No species has been de- 

 scribed from the North Pacific ; and it may be a new species yet 

 undiscovered, as all the other species come from the other side of 

 the equator. 



I should, judging from the figures, regard them as belonging to 

 two, if not three, distinct species, and the whole theory of their being 

 difi:erent ages of the same species as a mistake arising from not study- 

 ing the growth of the teeth in these animals. 



The skeleton of 0. Stelleri (t. 23) is taken from the same speci- 

 men as the skull, which he says is of a very aged individual (t. 21. 

 f. 1, 2), and is most probably the adult of Zalop/hus OilUespii. SkuU, 

 figs. 3 and 4, may be the young of the same species ; but, unfor- 

 tunately, the underside is not figured of any of these skulls, so as 

 to show the position of the teeth in connexion with the zygoma ; 

 and figures 5 and 6 are evidently Giipsoplwca, as above stated. 

 (P. Z. S. 1872, p. 659.) 



This species was first described by Dr. Macbain as Otaria OilUespii 

 in the Report Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, 1858, from a specimen in the 

 Mus. Col. Surgeons, Edinburgh. He kindly sent a oast of the skull 

 ■to the British Museum, which I figured P. Z. S. 1859, t. Ixx., under 

 the name of Arctocephahis Qillie.spii. Mr. Allen has figured a skull 

 in the Smithsonian Institution and another in the Museum of the 

 Chicago Academy of Science, under the name of Zahplius GiUiespii, 

 Bulletin Mus. Comp. Anat. ii. 



9. NEOPHOCA, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Seals 4- Whales, p. 28. 



The upper grinders have a conical crown, with a distinct collaret, 

 especially on the inner side, and the four front have a tubercle on 

 the front side of the collaret, and a very small rudimentary one on 

 the hinder side ; the fifth is wanting. The grinders of the lower 

 jaw have a similar elongated, conical crown, with a distinct collaret 

 on the inner side, which has a largo tubercle in front and a more 

 rudimentary one on the hinder part of the inner edge ; the fifth 

 has a distinct tubercle on the back of the front edge. The four 

 middle cuttiog-teeth do not enlarge during the growth of tlic 

 animal; Ihey become rather further apart, in consequence of tlie 

 dilatation of the hone, especially in the adult animal. 



