THE "SEA-ELEPHANT." 387 



side of the plain above the beaches, marking the rookeries of old 

 times and tracks of slaughter of the sealers." Specimens which 

 were preserved on board the * Challenger ' were found to have 

 " only a greenish slime in their stomachs " ; and Moseley states 

 that " neither the Otariadce nor the ' Sea-Elephants ' feed during 

 the breeding season, but live upon their fat, becoming gradually 

 thinner and thinner." They seem very plentiful on Heard Island, 

 where on one beach thousands can be seen in the breeding season. 

 The Californian " Sea-Elephant " (Macrorhinus angustirostris) is 

 well described in Allen's 'North American Pinnipeds,' and is there 

 stated to " differ very little in size, colour, or other external 

 features " from the southern species. Capt. Scammon has 

 described the animal and its habits most fully ; and is by Allen 

 freely quoted. 



Under the name of Macrorhinus leoninus,* Trimen reports it 

 as having been met with on the Cape Coast (c/. Noble's * Official 

 Handbook of the Cape and South Africa,' pp. 60-1). The Kev. 

 A. E. Eaton, during his visit to Kerguelen Island, frequently 

 saw young Sea-Elephants in Swains Bay. " Some examples are 

 uniformly reddish brown, others are pale, blotched and spotted 

 with darker grey. They usually lie just above the beach, sepa- 

 rately, in hollows among the Accena and Azorella where they are 

 sheltered from the wind." (Proc. Roy. Soc. xxiii. 1875, p. 502.) 

 According to the information obtained by Robert Hamilton, 

 " They take particular delight in covering themselves with great 

 quantities of sand, moistened by the sea-water, which they throw 

 over them with their paws till they are entirely enveloped in it. 

 It is under these circumstances especially, that with Forster, we 

 might mistake them for so many enormous rocks." (' Amphibious 

 Carnivora,' &c, p. 219.)— (Ed.). 



* The late Sir W. H. Flower advocated the use of this name. He 

 wrote : — " There is much confusion as to the synonymy of the species. It is 

 the Phoca leonina of the ' Systema Naturae,' ed. xii., founded upon the ' sea 

 lion and lioness ' of Juan Fernandez, described and figured in Anson's 

 Voyage, 1748 ; the P. elephantina of Molina, 1782, and the P. proboscidea 

 of Perron, 1815, and of many late authors. Leonina therefore is the earliest 

 specific appellation" (' Philosoph. Trans.' clxviii. 1879, p. 96). 



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