It was this observation that induced me to return to my original opinion, that the skull which I had at first regarded as a young skull of Arctocephalus monteriensis (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859), and then as a separate species under the name of A. californianus (Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 51), was only a monstrosity of A. monteriensis, as I did in the Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1866, xviii. p. 232; and I am now induced to believe that Arctocephalus schisthyperoës is only an imperfectly developed skull of A. antarctica.
Dr. J. R. Forster, in Cook’s voyage in 1775, observed the Eared Seal at the Cape of Good Hope, and called it Phoca ursina. Believing it to be the same as the Sea-bear he had observed in New Zealand, Thunberg, in his list of Cape Mammalia in the third volume of the ‘Transactions of the St. Petersburg Academy,’ iii. 322, notices this animal under the name of Phoca antarctica (see Fischer, Syn. Mam. p. 242). Dr. Peters has applied the name of Otaria pusilla to this species, believing it to be the Petit Phoque of Buffon, which has been named Phoca pusilla by Schreber, and had before been named Phoca parva by Boddaert. Buffon says that it came either from India or the Levant; but it is not by its description to be distinguished from a young specimen of almost any of the species. It is as likely to have come from the Falkland Islands as from the Cape, as the French had traffic with Les Iles Malouines, as they call them.
M. de Buffon describes a small Eared Seal, which he calls a “second Phoque” (vol. xiii. p. 341, t. 43, where it is named “le petit Phoque”), which, he was assured, came from India, but very probably came from the Levant; and he considers it adult, because it has all its teeth. It is only one-fifth of the size of the Seal of the European seas (Hist. Nat. xiii. p. 344). He further speaks of it as “le petit Phoque noir des Indes et du Levant” (p. 345). It is evidently a young Eared Seal. The figure is probably from the skin, with the bones of the toes and jaws, presented to the cabinet by M. Mauduit (mentioned at p. 433. n. 1273), and said to have come from India.
The specimen Buffon figured, then being in the Paris Museum, was thus described by Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. p. 220):—“Cet animal a deux pieds de long; ses oreilles sont grandes et pointues; son pelage est fourré, luisant, d’un brun noir très-foncé et a sa nuance blanchâtre. Le ventre seul est brun-jaunâtre.” The teeth show that it is young.
The figure and description of the Petit Phoque of Buffon have had the following names given to them:—
- Little Seal, by Pennant and Shaw.
- Phoca pusilla, Schreber, Säugeth. 314 (Peters).
- Phoca parva, Bodd. Elench. 78.
- Otaria pusilla, Desm. N. Dict.
- Otaria Peronii, Desm. Mamm.
Fischer, in his ‘Synopsis,’ under Phoca pusilla, p. 252, gives the Cape of Good Hope and Rotteness Island, on the coast of Australia, as the habitat of the species.
The description of Cuvier much more nearly fits that of the young Arctocephalus nigrescens from the Falkland Islands. The fur of the young Cape Seal is dark, black above and below; the hairs are slender, and brown (not whitish) at the base; and the underside is not yellowish brown; so that it is very doubtful if it is the young of the Cape Seal.
Dr. Peters, believing Buffon’s specimen to be a young Cape Seal, changed the name of Delalandii to pusilla.
In the Museum are three states in flat skins:—