"28 HAND-LIST OF SEALS, MOUSES, 



figured as only having five grinders on each side of the upper jaw, 

 and Dr. Peters founds his characters on this peculiarity. I believe 

 that the skull will be found to have lost the small upper hinder 

 grinders, for which there is space at the hinder end of the alveolar 

 edge. The skull has the fifth grinder behind the back edge of the 

 front part of the zygomatic arch. The only Seals that I know that 

 have the teeth in this position have six grinders in the upper jaw ; 

 and they, like this genus, aU have triangular-shaped grinders and 

 abundant under-fur. 



Dr. Peters in his second paper on Eared Seals, ' Monatsbericht,' 

 1866, p. 671, enlarges his subgenus Aretoplioca, and also refers to 

 it Otaria falJclandica of Shaw and Burmeister, which ho says is my 

 Otaria nigrescens, from the unpublished figure of the skull of it 

 which I gave him, and which is a species of my genus Eiwtaria, 

 which has only the sixth upper tooth behind the front of the zygo- 

 matic arch. 



Dr. PhUippi sent a description and figure of a skull that he had 

 received from the island of Masafuera, on the west coast of South 

 America, which is published by Dr. Peters in the ' Monatsbericht' 

 for 1871, p. 588, t. 1, 2, and which he calls Arctophoca argentata. 

 This skull wants the hinder part of the brain-case, has six grinders 

 in its upper jaw, and is in every respect very like the skull of Gg2^- 

 sophoca tropiculis from North Australia and the Arctopihoca Philippii 

 from Juan Fernandez. It chiefly differs from the figure of the 

 latter skull, as Dr. Philippi shows in his plate, in the hinder por- 

 tion of it being narrower, and the condyles much shorter or rather 

 narrower. 



These three skulls have nearly the same teeth, and appear to me 

 to belong to one group ; but whether they are three distinct species 

 (two from the west coast of South America and one from North 

 Australia) I will not attempt to determine, as I have only seen the 

 skins and skull of the one from the latter region ; but they are all 

 Fur-Seals, and may be distinct. 



The figures of the skulls of Otaria Ph'dippii and of Otaria argen- 

 tata have the front edge of the hinder aperture of the nostrils with a 

 triangular slit in the middle ; the young skull of Criipsop)lioca tropi- 

 calis has it truncated and entire ; but this part, as I have already 

 observed, is liable to bo imperfect in this respect in many species. 

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



1. Gypsophoca tkopicalis, Oray, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 659, figs. 5 

 & 6 (skull). 



Arctocephalus nigrescens, b ^- c, Gerrard, Cat. Hones B.M. p. 147. 

 Arctocephalus cinereus. Gray, Cat. Seak i>,- Whales, p. 50 ; Ann. Sf 



Mag. Nat. Hist. 1806, xviii. p. 2.30 (not synonyma). 

 Arctocephalus cinereus (young), Clark, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 750. 



Black, grey beneath ; under-fur abundant, reddish brown. 

 Mab. North coast of Australia (Mr. John Macr/dlivrag). 



Animal, with skiill, stuffed. 



North Australia (Macgillirrai/). 



