side of the plain above the beaches, marking the rookeries of old times and tracks of slaughter of the sealers." Specimens which were preserved on board the 'Challenger' were found to have "only a greenish slime in their stomachs"; and Moseley states that "neither the Otariadæ nor the 'Sea-Elephants' feed during the breeding season, but live upon their fat, becoming gradually thinner and thinner." They seem very plentiful on Heard Island, where on one beach thousands can be seen in the breeding season. The Californian "Sea-Elephant" (Macrorhinus angustirostris) is well described in Allen's 'North American Pinnipeds,' and is there stated to "differ very little in size, colour, or other external features" from the southern species. Capt. Scammon has described the animal and its habits most fully; and is by Allen freely quoted.
Under the name of Macrorhinus leoninus,[1] Trimen reports it as having been met with on the Cape Coast (cf. Noble's 'Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa,' pp. 60-1). The Rev. A.E. Eaton, during his visit to Kerguelen Island, frequently saw young Sea-Elephants in Swains Bay. "Some examples are uniformly reddish brown, others are pale, blotched and spotted with darker grey. They usually lie just above the beach, separately, in hollows among the Acæna and Azorella where they are sheltered from the wind." (Proc. Roy. Soc. xxiii. 1875, p. 502.) According to the information obtained by Robert Hamilton, "They take particular delight in covering themselves with great quantities of sand, moistened by the sea-water, which they throw over them with their paws till they are entirely enveloped in it. It is under these circumstances especially, that with Forster, we might mistake them for so many enormous rocks." ('Amphibious Carnivora,' &c, p. 219.)— (Ed.).
- ↑ The late Sir W.H. Flower advocated the use of this name. He wrote:—"There is much confusion as to the synonymy of the species. It is the Phoca leonina of the 'Systema Naturæ,' ed. xii., founded upon the 'sea lion and lioness' of Juan Fernandez, described and figured in Anson's Voyage, 1748; the P. elephantina of Molina, 1782, and the P. proboscidea of Perron, 1815, and of many late authors. Leonina therefore is the earliest specific appellation" ('Philosoph. Trans.' clxviii. 1879, p. 96).
