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Show 750 MR. J. W. CLARK ON THE EARED [Nov. 18, developed, and Cowper's glands were absent; the os penis was deeply grooved, U inch long, and slightly curved. That this animal is a true Canis is therefore clear ; but that the peculiarities of the caecum are not certain characters to employ in classification in this case is evident, as is likewise the case with Nandinia binotata, which, as pointed out recently by Prof. Flower *, is the only known iEluroid animal which does not possess a caecum. It will be interesting to observe whether the other South-American Canidae, all of which are peculiar in that the temporal ridges only meet across the skull for a very short distance at their posterior extremity (though some other species present this peculiarity) and are considerably separated in front, agree with Canis cancrivorus in the simplicity and shortness of their caeca. 8. O n the Eared Seals of the Auckland Islands. By JOHN W . CLARK, F.Z.S. [Received October 18, 1873.] The skulls which I have the pleasure of exhibiting to the Society to-night were brought from the Auckland Islands by M . Dumoutier, one of the naturalists who accompanied the French expedition sent in the 'Astrolabe' and ' Ze'le'e' between the years 1837-1840 to the Antarctic Seas. The largest of the two smaller skulls was purchased in Paris by m y late father in 1853, of M . Dumoutier himself; and the two others, together with some fragments of a third, were found by m e a few weeks ago in the shop of M . Vasseur, 9 Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine. He stated that they had formed, to the best of his belief, part of M . Dumoutier's collection-a fact which is put beyond all doubt by the handwriting upon them; for it is clearly the same on all three, and is also not to be distinguished from that on other objects received from him, and now in the Cambridge Museum. The skulls are marked respectively (<Phoque des Auckland," (iPhoque des Iles Auckland," and "Phoque male adulte des Iles Auckland du Sud." The Auckland Islands lie between 800 and 900 miles S. of Tasmania, in lat. 50° 48' S., long. 166° 42' E. They were first discovered in 1806 by Captain Bristow, on board a whaler belonging to the Messrs. Enderby. During the next thirty-four years they appear to have been occasionally visited by vessels in search of whales and seals, but never to have been scientifically explored, nor was any note of their fauna or flora made. In 1840 they were visited by no less than three exploring-expeditions, viz.:-by the American brig ' Porpoise,' commanded by Lieut. Wilkes; the French corvettes 'Astrolabe' and ' Ze'le'e ;' and the English ships ' Erebus' and ' Terror,' under the command of Sir J. C. Ross. Wilkes investigated the botany of the islands, and the birds ; but as he says that " besides the birds, the the only living creature was a small mouse," he evidently paid but * P. Z. S. 1872, p. 683. |