# The Zoologist/4th series, vol 3 (1899)/Issue 699/The "Sea-Elephant" (''Macrorhinus elephantinus''), Distant

Published in The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3, issue 699 (September, 1899), p. 385/7
Zoologist, 1899.Plate III.
THE ZOOLOGIST
No. 699.— September, 1899.
THE "SEA-ELEPHANT" (MACRORHINUS ELEPHANTINUS).
(Plate III.)
Some few months ago Mr. Robert Service, of Dumfries, kindly forwarded to us a photograph of a specimen of this animal which had been killed on the Falkland Islands. This photograph, however, was too faint for reproduction, and, at our request, he asked his correspondent, Mr. Wm. Grierson, of Stanley, F. I., to send us, if possible, a better impression. This has now been received, and is reproduced in the accompanying Plate. With the photograph, Mr. Service received the following letter from the capturer of this interesting beast:—
"Stanley, F.I., June 21st, 1899.
This appears to refer to some lantern-slides of a specimen which were exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Rupert Vallentin, at a meeting of the Linnean Society on June 1st last. According to the official report of that meeting,—"The distribution of this huge Seal on various antarctic and subtropical islands having been traced, Mr. Vallentin's notes on a specimen killed in Stanley Harbour were read. It measured 18 ft. 11 in. from the end of the trunk to a straight line between the two hinder extremities; the trunk, produced by the inflation of a loose tubular sac of skin above the nostrils, is present only in the male, and measures, when fully extended, 12 in. from the gape. No fresh facts were made known concerning the nature of the food of this animal: described by some writers as herbivorous, like the Manatee; by others, as feeding on Mollusca and Crustacea, like the Walrus. In this case the stomach was empty, with the exception of a large number of Nematode worms, specimens of which were exhibited."
In the late Prof. Moseley's "Notes by a Naturalist on the 'Challenger'" will be found considerable information regarding this animal. It has almost entirely deserted the island of Tristan da Cunha. Four specimens were found on landing at Kerguelen's Land, where the species is probably common. On Heard Island there were strewn thousands of skeletons of the "Sea-Elephant."
"The bones lay in curved lines, looking like tide lines, on either ​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, 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.).
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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