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Show 1875.] MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. 675 no. 1532, m. ~; and no. 1535, m. ^. In these specimens all the molars have a well-marked internal "cingulum," and the four first, in both jaws, a tolerably large anterior cusp; there is no posterior cusp. The belief in its existence is due to the size of the " cingulum," whose posterior edge may easily be mistaken for a cusp. The last two above and the last below are bicuspid. A skull in the Leyden Museum, marked " Otaria australis, Coll. Brookes. Nouv. Hollande. Type de YArctocephalus lobatus, Gray, Spic. Zool. tab. 4. fig. 2. Otaria australisl ' Astrolabe,' tab. 14," has only five molars in the upper jaw, as I learn from the notes on that collection made by my friend Professor Flower, and which he has most kindly allowed me to use. The hinder opening of the palate in adult but not old specimens is V-shaped. Mr. Gould states that old animals are destitute of fur, and that the males and females differ in colour; Mr. Scott says, " the commercial value of the animal consists in the hide and oil only "* ; and Quoy and Gaimard note that " the distinguishing mark of this species is, that on no part of the body is there any fur at the base of the hair"*]*. I reconcile the discrepancies in the figures of Gould and Quoy and Gaimard by suggesting that the white spot may be a distinguishing mark of males, and therefore would not be mentioned by Quoy and Gaimard, who studied a female only. This idea is supported by Mr. Scott's remarks that females are lighter than males, which are of a dark brown; while Quoy and Gaimard themselves admit (though their figure does not show it) that the yellowish grey of the back ("un gris qui a des reflets jaunatres") becomes lighter on the neck and passes into a dirty white on the head, cheeks, and muzzle. Moreover both Arctocephalus lobatus and Otaria australis are noted as having nails on all five toes-a character which is clearly not peculiar to the Otariidce of Australia, and which it is not likely would be repeated in two species from the same or neighbouring localities. The synonymy will therefore, if my views be accepted, run as follows :- 1. OTARIA FORSTERI. 1828. Otaria forsteri, Lesson, Diet. Class. d'Histoire Naturelle, xiii. 421. . m, 1829. Phoca forsteri, Fischer, Synopsis Mammahum, 1829, p. 232. 1844. Phoca ursina, J. R. Forster, Descript. Animal, p. 64 %. 1866. Arctocephalus cinereus, Gray, Ann. & Mag. xviii. 236. 1872. Gypsophoca tropicalis, Gray, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 659. Hab. Dusky Bay, N. Z. (Forster) ; Cape-Barren Island, Bass's * Mammalia, Eecent and Extinct (8vo, Sydney, 1873), p. 21. t "Ce qui distingue cette espece c'est qu'il n'y a nulle part de feutre a la bas des poils" (I. c. p. 96). . . . . . t This name must now be dropped for this species, having originated in a mistaken reference to the Linnean name for the species from Behring's Island, described by Steller as Ursus marinus in 1751 (Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. 1766, i. p. 55; Nov. Comment, Petropol. 1751, p. 331). |
