GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | 1 -- -- 4? | 1 -- -- 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- 2. 3 -- | | | | | The earless or true Seals are pretty equally divided between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, frequenting almost exclusively the temperate and cold regions, except two species said to occur among the West Indian islands. The genus _Phoca_ and its close allies, as well as _Halichoerus_ and _Pelagius_, are {204}northern; while _Stenorhynchus_ and _Morunga_, with their allies, are mostly southern. The genera admitted by Dr. Gray in his catalogue are as follows:-- _Callocephalus_ (3 species), Greenland, North Sea, also the Caspian Sea, and Lakes Aral and Baikal; _Pagomys_ (2 species), North Sea, North Pacific, and Japan; _Pagophilus_ (2 species), North Pacific and North Atlantic; _Halicyon_ (1 species), North West coast of America; _Phoca_ (2 species), North Atlantic and North Pacific, Japan; _Halichoerus_ (1 species), Greenland, North Sea, and Baltic; _Pelagius_ (2 species), Madeira, Mediterranean, Black Sea; _Stenorhynchus_ (1 species), Antarctic Ocean, Falkland Islands, New Zealand; _Lobodon_ (1 species), Antarctic Ocean; _Leptonyx_ (1 species), Antarctic Ocean, South Australia, East Patagonia; _Ommatophoca_ (1 species), Antarctic Ocean; _Morunga_ (2 species), California, Falkland Islands, Temperate regions of Southern Ocean; _Cystophora_ (2 species), North Atlantic, Antilles. _Fossil Seals._--Remains of living species of seals have been found in Post-tertiary deposits in many parts of Europe and in Algeria, as well as in New Zealand. _Pristiphoca occitana_ is a fossil seal from the Pliocene of Montpellier, while a species of _Phoca_ is said to have been found in the Miocene deposits of the United States. _General Remarks on the Distribution of the Carnivora._