16. ARCTOCEPaAITTS. 53 



d. Skin of young with the under-fur dark hroWn. Cape of Good 



Hope. 



e. Skull of a very young specimen. Cape of Good Hope ? or Palkland 



Islands ? Presented hy Sir John Richardson. 



Two skulls of adults from the Cape, and One half-groVra, habitat 

 unknown. These skulls agree in the form of the hinder palatine 

 opening, but vary in other respects a little from each other : the two 

 adult ones differ in the aperture of one being wider and shorter than 

 that of the other : in the yoiuig skuU the front edge of the aperture 

 is more acute in the centre than in either of the others ; the outer 

 cutting-teeth of the upper jaw are large, but much smaller thaU the 

 very large cauiaes. 



Cuvier (Oss. IPoss. v. 220) observes that iDelalands brought from 

 the Cape a young specimen 3 feet 6 iuches long, of a reddish-grey 

 colour, the ends of the hairs annulated with grey and blackish, rather 

 paler beneath; the whiskers strong, simple, and black; the feet 

 black ; the under-fur soft, woolly ;^and two skeletons of young, and 

 the skuU of an adult specimen. This skull is figured (Cuvier, Oss. 

 Foss. V. 1. 18. f. 5) ; but unfortunately the palate, which is the most 

 characteristio part of the skuU, is not figured nor described. The 

 palate of the skull of the younger specimen is described thus: — '■ 

 " Le palais est plus etroit, se porte plus en arriere et est echancre 

 par un angle plus aigu." 



Buffon notices a young. Seal, which he calls the jietit Phoque 

 (vol. xiii. t. 53), on which the Phoca pmilla of Schreber and suc- 

 ceeding authors has been founded, which is probably the young of 

 this species. 



Daubenton states (Hist. Nat. xiii. 413) that the specimen figured 

 by Bufibn came from India ; but it is probable that it was brought 

 from the Cape of Good Hope in a ship coming from India. No Seal 

 has as yet been described as inhabiting the coast of India. 



Fischer confounded with Phoca pvsilla of Buifon a Seal from Rot- 

 tennest Island, on the eastern coast of Australia (Syn. Mamm. 232), 



Mr. Burchell, in the list of animals he collected in South Africa, 

 mentions " a Seal, 10| feet long, killed in Table Bay, 19th May, 

 1815, and of very rare occurrence on the coast of the colony." 



Dr. Andrew Smith describes a specimen 8^ feet long, and observes, 

 " the young when between 2 and 3 feet in length are nearly quite 

 black, and are called Sea Dogs by the colonists." — South African 

 Quart. Joum. ii. 62. 



b. Shdl narrow, elongate. 

 * Hinder edge of the palate transversely tntneated. 



6. Arctocephalus Hookeri. 



Skull narrow, elongate ; palate deeply concave in front, narrow 

 and rather concave behind, with a deep hinder aperture, which has 

 a transverse truncated front edge with a slight central lobe directed 

 backward ; outer upper cutting-teeth very large, conical, acute ; orbit 

 moderate ; zygoma slender ; angle of jaw bent inwards. 



