ARCTOCEPHALUS LOBATUS. Cowled Seal. no er ra ora aro Cree & i Otaria cer ae a s Narrat. Austr alia, vol. ii. p. 413.—Id. in Griff. Anim. Kined., vol. v. p. 183 (not Arctocephalus lobatus, Gray, Spic. Zool., i. t. (skull). p. 37, 1828.—Gray, Zool. of Ereb. and T Coll. Brit. Mus., part ii., Seals Phoca lobata, Fisch. Syn., vol. ii. p. 574. —Bull. Sci. Nat., vol. xvi. p. 113.—J. Brookes’s Cat. Mus., error, Mamm., pl. 16, p. 4—Id. Cat. of Spec. of Mamm. in » p. 44.—Id. Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xxvii. p. 110. Otaria Lamairu, J. Mill. Wieg. Archiv, 1843, p. 334? Otaria stelleri, (Mus. Leyden, 1845) Faun. Japon., t. 21, 22, 23 (animal), t. 22. fie. 3 (skull) Otaria jubata, part, Gray, Cat. of Osteol. Coll. of Brit. Must) paook : Tuere is perhaps no one group of the Mammals of Australia so little understood as the Seals ; hence it is very gratifying when we are able to obtain any reliable information respecting the species that visit the rocky shores of that continent and the adjacent islands. As I did not see many of these animals during my visit to Australia, IJ must content myself with letting those who have say rae they know of the subject, taking care that the animals are correctly figured, and that the passages quoted are correctly applied. I would also remark that the list of synonyms are given on the authority of Dr. Gray’s ‘List of the Seals contained in the Collection of the British Museum ;’ andas this gentleman has paid much attention to the Seals of the Southern Ocean, I have no doubt that they may be depended upon. The specimens spoken of by Mr. Gilbert, in the note from his MSS. given below, as having been procured by him on the Houtmann’s Abrolhos, as well as the one which Mr. Angus mentions as killed by Sir George Grey in Rivoli Bay, are all in the British Museum; and it is from these specimens that my figures are taken. There is but little doubt in Dr. Gray’s mind that Mr. Gilbert’s specimens from the Houtmann’s Abrolhos are the female or young of the much larger male shot by Sir George Grey in Rivoli Bay, although the latter is twice the size of the former, being fully ten feet in length and as large in girth as a moderate- sized horse. No great length of time has elapsed since the islands in Bass’s Straits and the south coast of Australia were first visited by the sealers; but in that comparatively short interval they have dealt out destruction among these inoffensive animals to such an extent that they are now all but exterminated. Collins (in 1798, when his account of New South Wales was published) mentions that ‘The rocks towards the sea were covered with Fur-Seals of great beauty, of a species which seemed to approach nearest to that known to naturalists as the Falkland Island’s Seal.” Few, if any, are now to be seen there. “Tn the collection I now send you,” says Mr. Gilbert, “ you will receive eight Seals, of various sizes, the largest of which is a mature male, though it is not so large, bya third, as the very old ones, of ee I saw several, but could not obtain either of them. Among them is a half-grown male and a full-grown female ; the others are young animals, and the smallest a suckling. : *¢ This animal is extremely numerous on all the low islands of the Houtmann’s Abrolhos, particularly those having sandy beaches; but it does not confine itself to such places, being often oe the ridges of coral and madrepores, over which we found it very painful walking, but over which ne Seals often outran us. On many of the islands they have been so seldom (perhaps, indeed, never before) disturbed, a I frequently came upon several females and their young in a group under ‘ne shade of the mang Ov 2 anc 2 little were they alarmed, that they allowed me to approach almost within the reach of my gun, w on the young would play about the old ones, and bark and growl at us im the oe aa va pee only when we struck at them with clubs that they showed any disposition to attack us, or delend ther renerally attack the yhen attemptit young. The males, however, would generally attack the men wher ; 7 | ee ? ren after being disturbed they seldom attempt to ig to escape : but, generally speaking, the animal may be considered harmless; for ev do more than take to the water as quickly as possible. siderably darker than the females.” I am indebted to Mr. G. F. Angus for a drawing of this George Grey, as mentioned above. They differ much in colour, the males being con- é : e animal, taken from the specimen killed by Sir ‘«¢a sketch of the Seal killed by Sir George Grey, while Governor of South a ce , =) d 6c - 2 as , . Cus . . wae oe aie I was with Sir George when it was shot Australia, in Rivoli Bay, on the south-east coast of that colony. at Sr ae and afterwards clubbed, and made my sketch, and took its eee o : ‘a ae Dr. Gray states that this species and the A. Hookeri « ave called a o y a oe ao sstitute of sr fur; but this appears to be the case only with the older spec ee : PN se sa) to be on d with soft fur, which falls off when the next coat of ee c developed. 4. lobatus in the British Museum collection. . sides, and back dark or blackish of A. lobatus is said to be covere The under fur is entirely absent in the half-grown « The adult has the face, front and sides of the neck, al ine 1 rey -tremities of the limbs ; brown, passing into dark slaty grey on the extremitie and back of the neck rich deep fawn-colour ; eyes black. - the upper surface 1 the under surface, the hinder half of the crown, the nape eae oe rs being dark, and the face and under In the young a reverse of this colouring occurs, surface buff.