Zoology.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Mammalia. 



to look at us, raising their kind, intelligent, good-humored, dog- 

 like heads, with beautiful large, brown, soft eyes, looking like large 

 Retriever Dogs with the pleased and friendly expression they wear 

 when approaching their masters. 



Making an arrangement with an old sealer living on Phillip 

 Island, and greatly aided by Mounted Constable George Ardill, 

 stationed on duty there, I ultimately got for the Melbourne 

 Museum the fine old male, the adult female, and the young one, 

 figured on our present plate in the attitudes of life when on land, 

 as noted at the time, and now represented by Dr. Wild (the 

 accomplished artist, formerly of the Challenger Expedition) from 

 the preserved specimens set up with every attention to accuracy 

 of form and position of the parts. These additional lithographs 

 of this species, not figured by Mr. Gould, and which will soon 

 become extinct on our shores, were desirable because our former 

 figure, in Plate 31 (Decade IV.), was of an unusually grey 

 specimen, and only gave the position of the limbs and body 

 when swimming, which differs little from other Seals ; while the 

 attitudes assumed on land, shown in the present plate, are peculiar 

 to the Seals having external ears. 



The task of procuring the required specimens was by no means 

 an easy one, for not only is it difficult to land, even in the calmest 

 weather, but if a boat approached the island by day the Seals 

 would take to the water, and not return so long as the men were 

 to be seen. It was therefore determined to land on the first calm 

 evening, and bring blankets and food for the night, to be passed in 

 some of the caves found there, so that, as the Seals came back at 

 night to rest, the sealers might quietly emerge before daybreak, 

 and, selecting an adult old male and female, make sure of them 

 with heavy rifles used for the purpose, and take chance of catching 

 a young one in the confusion. This was at last successful, and I 

 was enabled to get accurate drawings of the diverse profiles of the 

 male and female, and of all the soft parts while yet in the flesh. 



During the breeding season the roaring of the old males may be 

 heard half a mile off, high above the thunders of the surf, and they 

 show great courage and ferocity in defending the females and 



[8] 



