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

by John Edward Gray

3. Arctocephalus cinereus. Australian Fur-Seal.

Otaria (Arctocephalus) cinerea, Peters, Monatsb. 1866, pp. 272 & 671.

Arctocephalus nigrescens, b & c, Gerrard, Cat. Bones B.M. p. 147.

Black Seal, Otaria, Cat. Sidney Museum, ii. p. 36.

Arctocephalus cinereus, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 56; Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1866, xviii. p. 236; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. ii. p. 45.

Inhab. Australia (John Macgillivray).

Black, greyer beneath; under-fur abundant, reddish brown.

There are the stuffed skin, with its skull, and the bones of the face of another young specimen of this Seal in the British Museum, collected in the Australasian Sea by Mr. John Macgillivray.

According to the observations of Dr. Peters, founded on the examination of the typical skulls, Otaria ursina of Nilsson and Otaria Lemarii of J. Müller (Arch. f. Naturg. 1841, p. 334) include the Arctocephalus antarcticus from South Africa and A. cinereus of Australia.

Otaria Stelleri of Schlegel (Fauna Japonica, t. 22. f. 55) includes both the Australian Eared Seals, viz. Arctocephalus cinereus and Neophoca lobata; and it is quite distinct from the Otaria Stelleri of Lesson and T. Müller, which is a combination of the Sea-bear and Sea-lion of Steller (that is to say, Eumetopias Stelleri and Callorhinus ursinus).