Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/475

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THE ZOOLOGIST


No. 712.—October, 1900.


SEA-ELEPHANTS ON KERGUELEN'S LAND.

By Robert Hall.

In the summer of 1897-98 I paid a visit, in the brig 'Edward,' to this island of the South Indian Ocean. I did so by the invitation of Mr. Hans Gundersen, and acted in the capacity of naturalist.

While doing research work I could not but notice certain habits in the lives of the enormous amphibious mammals, and a few general remarks thereon may prove interesting.

The southern Seals are not so strong in species as those of the northern seas. The distribution of the total twenty-five species, including a Walrus, is four in the southern hemisphere, and twenty in the northern. One is peculiar to both, and this is the one under present consideration, and specially called Macrorhinus leoninus. It is to be found in California, and is probably circumpolar in the Australis.[1]

Certain of the Seals are very local, and have reached peculiar places on the earth. One is confined to the Caspian Sea, and

  1. This animal was described and figured from the Falkland Islands in our last volume (Zool. 1899, p. 385). It was there referred to under the specific name of Macrorhinus elephantinus. In using the specific appellation M. leoninus Mr. Hall is in agreement with the late Prof. Flower, as pointed out in our pages (ibid. p. 387). Mr. Hall, in his opinion that the northern and southern species are identical, is in opposition to some other authorities. Mr. Allen, in his 'North American Pinnipeds,' treats the Californian animal as a distinct species (M. angustirostris).—Ed.
Zool. 4th ser. vol. IV., October, 1900.
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