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Show 1873.] SEALS OF THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS. 757 wider; but this, 1 think, is explained by the skulls being evidently those of younger animals. The mastoid process shows signs of ultimately developing into the peg-like process of the larger skull; and though there is not the same decided interval between the periotic and the basioccipital, there is yet no union or coherence between the bones, and I think that with increased age the bulla and the mastoid process would develop and absorb the canal now existing between them and the basioccipital. The dental formula in the two smaller skulls is T ?Z? f - M - *" 2-2' V" 1-1' 1V1* 5-5* The outermost incisor in the upper jaw is very large, quite half as large as the canine. The upper molars are poiuted ; each has a small anterior tubercle; and the last two have their crowns bifid, with a double root. The lower molars are similar in shape; but the last only has a bifid crown and a double root. The same characters obtain in the large skull; but the incisors have fallen out by age, and the molars are much worn. The points of similarity that I have enumerated are so remarkable that I cannot but conclude that the three skulls are all of the same species ; and I explain the difference in size, strength of build, development of crest, and dimensions of canine teeth by suggesting that the large skull is that of a male, and the two smaller those of females. It follows that Otaria hookeri has been determined and hitherto known only from female skulls. The colour of Captain Musgrave's Sea-lion, a yellowish grey, will agree very well with that of the specimens of O. hookeri in the British Museum. One of those is grey, inclining to black ; the other, and smaller one (perhaps a female), a warm golden grey. I conclude therefore that the Seal described by him with so much minuteness is O. hookeri, and that the Auckland Islands may be set down for the future as one of its habitats. There has been hitherto much difficulty in ascertaining the precise locality of Otaria hookeri. Dr. Gray says it "inhabits Falkland Islands and Cape Horn"*. I cannot, however, discover any authoritative statement that the skulls described by him, and now in the British Museum, belonged to animals actually killed at either of those places; and as regards the Falkland Islands, all the Seals that inhabit them have been most accurately enumerated by Captain Abbott (P. Z. S. 1868, p. 189), and 0. hookeri is not among them. As regards Cape Horn, we unfortunately do not possess equally precise information. It will be useful here to turn to the original account of Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook on his second voyage t, and on Dec. 31, 1774, being then at Staten Land, describes the Seals he met with in the following terms :- "After dinner we hoisted out three boats, and landed with a large * Zoology of ' Erebus' and ' Terror,' p. 5; Catalogue of Seals and Wales, ed, 1866, p. 54; Supplement to do. 1871, p. 16. t Captain Cook's Second Voyage, 4th ed. 1784, vol. ii. p. 194. |
