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Show 658 MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. [DeC. 7, has sent home a large series of skulls and skeletons of Otaria hookeri, 2 , rj\ and young, together with a series of Stenorhynchus leptonyx, which I was allowed to examine at Paris last September. One of the young skulls I exhibit to-night. I think there is no doubt, after comparison of it with a young skull of Otaria hookeri from Auckland Island, lent m e by Dr. Hector, that it is referable to that species, which varies exceedingly, as I have already shown, according to age and sex. From these accounts I estimate that the following species exist, or once existed:- Amsterdam Island and St. Paul's Island. 1. A Sea elephant, called " Sea-lion " by Captain Cox and Sir G. Staunton, a name universally given in the old voyages to that animal, as I have shown elsewhere*. 2. A n Otaria with abundant fur. New Zealand and Australia. 1. A "Sea-lion," seen off Cape Egmont by Cook on two occasions, and remarked by him to resemble the Sea-lion of Anson's voyage. This, therefore, I take to have been a Sea-elephant, though Peron found them, only 32 years later, restricted to King Island in Bass's Straits. 2. One or more species of Hair-Seal, probably of the genus Stenorhynchus, which is still abundant on the New-Zealand coast, and of which it would appear that there is more than one species f. 3. The Otaria oi Dusky Bay, described by Forster, and which has since been recognized as "the Fur-seal" par excellence oi New Zealand. This is probably the same species as that with " sharp-pointed nose, black hair, and fine whitish fur" seen by Bass and Flinders on Cape-Barren Island and elsewhere, between Australia and Van Diemen's Land. 4. A n Otaria observed by Flinders and Peron on Kangaroo Island, and called by the latter O. cinerea. To Peron's account may be added Flinders's remark that it " bore a reddish fur." 5. A n Otaria called O. albicollis, from the white patch on the neck. Macquarrie Island. A Fur-Seal, of which we have as yet received no specimens. Campbell Island. 1. A Fur-Seal, apparently. 2. Otaria hookeri, ] , , , , , _. , 3. Stenorhynchus leptonyx, J a S d e t e r m i n e d b>' ^ ***<*• Auckland Island. 1. Otaria hookeri. 2. A Fur-Seal. 3. Stenorhynchus leptonyx. * 'Nature,' Sept, 2, 1875, p. 367, and ' Contemporary Review,' Dec. 1, 1875. t Trans. New-Zealand Inst. ii. p. 29. |