74 NATUEAL BISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Nothing further resjjccting the breeding habits or sexual relations of the species appears to 

 have been as yet recorded, but they may be i)resunied to be similar to those of the Sea Eleiiliant 

 of the Antarctic Seas' 



CoMPAEisuN WITH THE SouTHBEN Sea Elbphant. — So far as caii be determined by descrip- 

 tions, Ihe Northern and the Southern Sea Elephants^ differ very little in size, color, or other 

 external features. Captain Scammon gives the average length of the fnll-grown male of the 

 northern species as twelve to fourteen feet, and says that the largest he ever measured had a length 

 of twenty-two feet "from tip to tip." P^ron gives the length of the southern species as twenty to 

 twenty-five, and even thirty feet, with a circumference of fifteen to eighteen feet. Anson gives 

 the length as twelve to twenty feet, and the circumference as eight to fifteen feet. Pernety records 

 the total length as twenty-five feet. Scammon gives the length of the young of the northern 

 species, at birth, as four feet; and P4ron gives four or five feet as the length of the young at birth 

 for the southern species. The skeletons of the two old males of the southern species, already 

 mentioned, allowing for the intervertebral cartilages that have disappeared in maceration, measure 

 respectively not over fifteen and sixteen feet, adding to which the length of the hind flipper and 

 the proboscis gives a total length, from " tip to tip," of about twenty-one to twenty-two feet. Eroui 

 the foregoing we may infer that the usual difference in size between the two species is not great, 

 the southern species on the whole appearing to be somewhat the larger of the two. It would seem 

 that tlie Northern and Southern Sea Elephants, though presumably distinct, are closely allied, as 

 well in structural characters as in habits. In respect to geographical distribution, I am not aware 

 that th6 southern species has been found north of about the 35th degree of south latitude (the 

 Island of Juan Fernandez), or the northern species south of about the 24th degree of north latitude. 

 It may consequently be safely assumed that the two forms have been long isolated, and that the 

 southern is an offshoot from northern stock, since the only other known species of the Cystophorinw 

 is also northern in its distribution. 



I It is here assniijed that tie Sen. Elephants of the Southern Hemisphere are all referable to a single species, the 

 Phoca leoninu of Linud, 1758, based on the Sea Lion of Lord Anson, which was renamed PJioca elephanlina by Molina, 

 1782, and a^ain renamed P/ioca^rotosctdea by P^ron, in I8I6, and of which Phoca Byroni of Desmarest, and also Pkoea 

 Ansom of the same author (the latter species in part only), and the Mirounga patagovica of Gray are synonyms. I am 

 ,-1 ware, however, that Peters has recently proposed the recognition of four species, namely, Ci/stopliora teoniria (= Anson's 

 Sea Lion), C /ateZandka (=PerDety's Sea Lion), C. prohoscidea (ex P^ron), and C. Icergui Icnsin (the Sea Elephant of 

 Kergueleii Island). He seems nut, however, to have arrived at this course by an examination of an extensive snitc of 

 specimens from various localities, as lie refers in this connection to only a single old male example from Kerguelen 

 Island. He seems to have been influenced merely by the varying statements in respect to size and some other feaiures 

 given by Peruety, Anson, and P<5ron. His entire preseutatioa of the case is as follows: "Pernety gibt von seiuem 

 Seeloweu eiue lanj^e Mahno, cine Totalliinge von 25 Fuss und eiuem Durchmesser der Basis der Eckzahno von 3 Zoll an. 

 Parous See-Elephanteu sollen bis 30 Fuss lang und von hlaugrauer Farbe sein. Vielleiclit sind alle diese Arteu 

 verschieden und es wUrde danu der Name C. leonina L. bloss dem Ansou'schen Seelowen zu belassen sein, wiihreud die C. 

 J'alklandica, wie man die von P. ruety benennen konnte, die C. proboscidia P^ron, die ('. anyusiiroslris Gill der nordlichen 

 Hcmisphiire und die von Kerguelenland besonderen Arten angehoreu wurden. Fur den letzteren Fall schlage ich vor, 

 dii-se Art kerguelensis zu benemuien.'' (Monatsb. d. K. P. Akad. Wissensch. zu Berlin 1875, p. 394, loot-note). 



'The Sea Elephants appear to be exceptional among the Phocidce iu the great disparity of size between the sexes, 

 in which, as well as iu their breeding habits, they closely resemble the Otaries. Although, unlike the latter, they 

 have not the power of using the hind limbs in locomotion on land, and are hence unable to walk, they manage to 

 crawl to a considerable distance from the sea — according to Scammon, a "half a mile or more." The habits of the 

 Southern Sea Elephant (Macrorhinus leoninus) were long since described by Ausou and Pernety, and later by P6ron, 

 but their accounts seem in some respects to be tinged with romance. According to these writers the males fight 

 desperately for the possession of the females. 



