15 



New Year's Island, Staten Land. " Their size was equal to that 

 assigned them by Steller; their hair is dark brown, sprinkled with 

 grey." — Forster. " They are rather larger than the common seal, and 

 their general colour is iron-grey." — Gook. 



Coast of Australia. " Black, greyer beneath ; the hair changes its 

 colour as the animal grows ; the young being generally black ; and the 

 adult males and females also differ considerably in the colour of the 

 hair." — Macgillivray, Arot. cinereus. — Oray. 



Aucklamd Isles. " Males, bulls, or sea lions, uniformly blackish-grey ; 

 length usually six feet, but the aged animal greatly exceeds this size. 

 Females, cows, or tiger seals, grey, golden-buff,' or beautiful silver colour, 

 sometimes spotted like a leopard ; smaller than the males." — Musgraee. 



AucMand Islands, South Coast of New Zealand, Shetland, Antipodes, 

 and Chatham Islands. " Adult male, or wig, uniformly blackish ; pupa 

 born black ; after a few weeks they become grey ; at a year old the 

 grey changes to Ught-brown, and when adult, to black, or blackish-grey. 

 Adult female, or clapmatch, grey to silver-grey, at times golden-buff ;' 

 pups black." — Morris.'' 



South Africa. " Adult male, or large wig, hair whitish, intermixed 

 with a few black ones ; adult, or middling, hairs reddish-white, grizzled, 

 with scattered black hairs ; young, or black pup, black, without any 

 grey tips. Arct. antareticus,from shins." — Gray. 



Erom such perplexing sources no xeasonable data for distinguishing 

 species can be deduced. I would, therefore, advise the student to 

 consider all the animals mentioned in the synonyms as of the one 

 kind, the A. Palklandicus of Shaw ; at least, until stronger proofs 

 of dissimilarity be produced to displace the present characteristics, 

 which certainly appeal more to the imagination than to reaUty. 



The Arctocephalus Palklandicus may be thus described : — 



The males, when aged, are whitish-grey, and between seven and 

 eight feet in length ; when adult, brown-grey to black-grey, and about 

 six feet in length; young, grey, upper portions soon assume darker 

 ' colours ; pups, black. 



The females, when adult, are ash-grey to silver-grey, at times golden- 

 buff, frequently spotted ; from three and a half to four and a half feet 

 in length, even more when aged ; pups, black. 



The under-fur of both sexes is rich reddish, diversified by deeper or 

 lighter shades, and variable in length and abundance ; the whole being 

 influenced by age, sex, and condition. 



Habitat, — Southern Seas generally. 



The economy of the Southern Fur-Seal has from time to time been 

 luminously portrayed by many writers, and, as mentioned before in 

 page 10, will be found, by perusal of the following extracts, selected 

 from many, to correspond precisely with the habits entertained by the 

 Northern animal. 



' See Mr. Allen's description of tlie female of the Northern Fur-Seal, p. 11. 

 '' For many years a sealsT by profession, and now residing in Sydney. 



