Supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the British Museum

by John Edward Gray

Phoca flavescens, Shaw, Gen. Zool. i. p. 200, t. 73 (from Pennant).

Inhab. Falkland Islands and Cape Horn.

Pennant, in his ‘Quadrupeds,’ describes an Eared Seal, rather more than 2 feet long, the whole body of which was covered with longish hair of a whitish or cream-colour; it was brought from the Straits of Magellan, and preserved in Parkinson’s Museum on the south side of Blackfriar’s Bridge (see “Eared Seal,” Pennant’s Quad. ii. p. 278). Dr. Shaw, in his ‘General Zoology,’ gave the name of Phoca flavescens to this species, and figured it (i. p. 260, t. 73).

This is very probably the young of the Hair-Seal of the Falklands, described by me as Arctocephalus Hookeri, which is of a pale-yellowish colour. Pennant does not mention the want of the under-fur.

Dr. Burmeister observes:—“We have in the Museum [at Buenos Ayres] a young half-grown specimen [of Arctocephalus falklandicus] nearly 3 feet long. From this I have taken the skull, of which I send you a description and drawings” (Ann. N. H. 1866, xviii. p. 99, t. 9. f. 1, 2, 3, 4). From the comparison of the figures, and especially of the teeth and the form of the palate, with our older skull of Arctocephalus Hookeri, I have little doubt that it is the skull of a specimen of that species before the grinders were all developed. It is not the skull of Otaria jubata, which the other specimen he called A. falklandicus is, as proved by the form and position of the hinder nasal openings. The figure of the young skull differs from the older skull of A. Hookeri in the British Museum in having a notch in the middle, while the older skull of A. Hookeri has a conical prominence in the same place. Such differences are found in skulls of Seals at different ages.

The skull of the young animal described and figured by Dr. Burmeister as Arctocephalus falklandicus (Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1866, xviii. p. 99, t. 9. f. 1 & 2), is probably the young skull of this species. It agrees with it in the elongated form of the skull, and in the large size and great development of the processes of the orbits.

Dr. Murie regards Otaria Philippii as founded on the skull of this species (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 108).

Mr. Allen, on the contrary, includes Otaria Hookeri as a synonym of Otaria jubata. One could not have a better proof of the want that Mr. Allen had of more materials when he undertook a revision of the family.

4. ARCTOCEPHALUS.

Arctocephalus, F. Cuvier, Peters.