75.
The head of a species, agreeing with the short description of Peron, was brought home by the expedition, but that it is the one intended by these authors, there is great room to doubt.

I am informed that specimens of Peron's animal are in the Paris Museum, but Desmarest and Frederic Cuvier, who have both lately written upon seals, have only copied the very short specific character given by Peron.

The head of our specimen is gray, covered with rather short, rigid, hairs, and without any woolly fur.

The ears are short, conical.
It is very distinct from the Otaria Falklandica of Desmarest (the Phoca falklandica* of Shaw) by the want of the woolly substance under the hair (called fur by the seal-fishers) and by the length of the ear, which in the latter species, described by Shaw, is long and awl-shaped.
(*Footnote.

The specimen in the Museum, which I take for this species, was brought by Captain Peake from New South Shetland: it differs from Pennant's, and consequently from all succeeding descriptions that are taken from him, in having five instead of four claws and toes to the hind foot.) Captain King in his manuscript observes, that this seal is found at Rottnest Island on the West Coast, and at King George the Third's Sound.
It appeared also to be the same species that frequents Shark's Bay; and, if it is M.Peron's Otaria cinerea, it is also found as far to the eastward as Kangaroo Island.
The head is deposited in the Linnean Society's collection.
4.