Mr. Gill considers Steller’s Sea-bear (Callorhinus ursinus) to be the type of M. F. Cuvier’s genus Arctocephalus, and therefore abolishes Callorhinus and gives the new name of Halarctus to the true Arctocephali—thus unnecessarily adding to the confusion of the generic names of these animals. He fell into this mistake by not observing that Phoca ursina, and even Otaria ursina, had been applied to several species from very different localities, that F. Cuvier established his genus on the skull of P. ursina of Forster, from the Cape, which he (M. Cuvier) had named Phoca Delalandii, and that F. Cuvier does not figure a skull of the Sea-bear of Steller: indeed the French collection did not at that time, nor does it even now, possess one; and I feel assured that, if it had, F. Cuvier would, according to his custom, have established for it a genus distinct from Arctocephalus, the skulls of the two genera being of such distinct forms.
1. Eumetopias Stelleri. Northern Sea-lion or Fur-Seal.
Arctocephalus monteriensis, Gray, Cat. Seals & W. p. 49; P. Z. S. 1859, t. 72 (skull).
Eumetopias californiana, Gill, Proc. Essex Inst. 1866, v. p. 13.
Otaria Stelleri, Gray, Cat. S. & W. p. 60; Peters; Müller?
Otaria (Eumetopias) Stelleri, Peters, Monatsb. 1866, pp. 274 & 671.
Eumetopias Stelleri, Gray, Ann. & Mag. 1866, vol. xviii. p. 233; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. vol. ii. pp. 44, 46, tab. 1 & 2 (skull &c.).
Leo marinus, Steller.
Phoca jubata, Pander & D’Alton, t. 3. f. d, e, f (skull, not good).
Junior. Arctocephalus californianus, Gray, Cat. S. & W. p. 51 (skull only).