14 



I arrive, by a careful analysis of tte researches of certain modem 

 authors of great experience in such matters, at the following general 

 hut singularly conclusive results, namely : — 

 Dr. Peters' con&idL&vs, nigrescens aiid PhilippiizzzFalhlandicus oi^^3.-sf 



also cinereus zzz a/ntarcticus. 

 Mr. AUen' ,, nigrescens, cinereus, antarcticus, 



JEhrsteri and Philippii = do. 



Dr. Burmeister^ „ FMlippii =: do. 



Mr. Sclater'' „ nigrescens =: do. 



Capt. Abbott'' „ nigrescens =: do. 



From these deliberate expressions of opiuion, I am led to conclude 

 that, if these zoologists are correct in their views, the whole series of 

 the species of the Southern Fur Seals, defined with such precision in the 

 British Museum Catalogue and Supplement, with the exception of Dr. 

 G-ray's Falkland Island Fur Seal, merge into the one, the Arctocephalus 

 Falklandicus of Shaw ; if otherwise, the difficoLty, even among the 

 most proficient, of discriminating species correctly, is so palpably dis- 

 played, that not only a disagreeable impression of unreliableness for 

 the method of determination is stamped on the mind, but that no 

 positive conclusions can possibly be drawn from principles so imperfect 

 in themselves, from the sUght and inconstant nature of their characters. 



Next, let the size and external colouring of the most familiarly known 

 animals, which locate the numerous and by no means widely apart 

 spots which stud the Southern Seas, be contemplated seriatim, and 1 

 think it will be admitted that the similarity, inter se, revealed by both 

 of these properties, will likewise corroborate by their concurrent testi- 

 mony the probable unity of the many so-called species. 



The Sea Bears, which inhabit the Falkland Islands, " have the hair 

 short, cinereous, tipped with dirty white ; length, 4 feet " — Phoca 

 falMandica, Shaio. "Blackish-brown, grey-black" — Arctoa. nigrescens, 

 Qray. " The full-grown seal is about the size of the common English 

 seal ; the hair differs in colour, being sometimes grey, and at othei 

 times of a brownish tint ; that of the young is of a darker brovra 

 colour." — Abbott. 



South Shetland Islands. "Nothing is more astonishing than the dis- 

 proportion in the size of the male and female ; a large grown male is 

 six feet nine inches, while the female is not more than three and a half 

 feet ; the young are at first black, but after a few weeks they become 

 grej."—Weddell. 



Island of Juan Fernandez. " They are the size of an ordinary calf j 

 their hair is of different colours, as black, brownish-grey, and spotted. 

 — Bampier. " Above dark-grey, more greyish on the head and neck, 

 brownish-white beneath." — Otaria Philippii. — -Peters. 



' Professor W. Peters, Berlin. 



^ Professor J. A. Allen, Cambridge, America. 



^ Museum, Buenos Ayres. 



* Secretary to Zoological Society of liondon. 



° Proceedings ZooL Soc, Loud., 1868. 



