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Show 1881.] PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE ELEPHANT SEAL. 147 and widely opening the mouth, is so noticed by Pernetty '. It may be remarked that the accuracy of Anson's figure as regards the attitude assumed by the animal when attacked, though ridiculed by Peron, is fully vindicated by Mr. Moseley in his interesting account of the Sea-Elephants of Kerguelen's Land 2. The skull appears to be that of an adult but by no means aged individual. The sutures between the basi-sphenoid and the basi-occipital on the one side, and the presphenoid on the other, are both still open, as in all the skulls of Elephant Seals I have yet examined. The crowns of the teeth are moderately worn ; and the root of the great upper canine has not yet closed in at the base, which, judging from many specimens examined, it appears only to do in extreme old age. Its relative size to that of other known skulls of animals of the same species may be estimated by the following figures, giving the length from the fore end of the premaxillaries to the occipital condyles in millimetres :- millim. Skull presented by Mr. Mansel, No. 3921 A 564 The largest skull in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A., from Heard Island3 .... 510 Largest skull in the Museum of Natural History, Paris4. . 508 Largest skull in the Berlin Museum, obtained in Kerguelen by the German Trausit-of-Venus Expedition 5 . 490 Skull in Mus. Roy. Coll. Surgeons, No. 3921, locality unknown 463 Skull in Mus. Roy. Coll. Surgeons, No. 3920, locality unknown 438 Largest skull in the British Museum 3806 1 "Lorsqu'ils apercoivent quelqu'un approcher d'eux, ils s'elevent ordinaire-ment sur leurs deux pattes-nageoires, tels qu'on les voitdans la figure 1 PL IX. Ils ouvrent une gueule a recevoir, aisement une boule dun pied de diamettre ; et la tiennent ainsi beante, en gonflant l'espece de trompe qu'ils ont sur le nez."-Histoire dun Voyage aux lies Malouines fait en 1763 § 1764, edit. 1770, tome ii. p. 45. The figure referred to is an unacknowledged copy of that of Anson. A still older observer, W . Funnell, mate to Captain Dampier, says, speaking of the " Sea-Lion " (as it was then generally called, because, as the author conjectures, " his Soaring is not unlike that of the Lion ") of Juan Fernandez, in 1703 :-" If they are hard pursued, they will turn about and raise their Body up with their Fore-fins, and face you, standing with their Mouth wide open upon their Guard: so that when we wanted to kill one to make Oil, we used commonly to clap a Pistol just to his Mouth, as it stood open, and fire it down his Throat."-A Collection of Voyages, vol. iv. p. 15 (1729). 2 Notes by a Naturalist on the ' Challenger ' (1879), p. 201. 3 J. A. Allen, ' History of North-American Pinnipeds' (1880), p. 748. 4 For this information I am indebted to Dr. H. Gervais. It was brought home in 1831 by D'Orbigny. That figured in Blainville's ' Osteographie,' if not the same specimen, is of the same dimensions. 5 Kindly communicated to me by Dr. Peters. 6 The Museum of the University of Oxford possesses the anterior portion of the skull of a young male from Burch ell's South-African collection, and the complete skeleton of a still younger female, The species is at present not represented in the excellent Osteological Museum at Cambridge. * 10* |