Thinking it desirable to visit the actual locality in Western Port Bay, where the French voyagers with Quoy and Gaimard originally found the type specimen of this species, still in the Paris Museum, I last year went out in a small steamer from Phillip Island to the smaller island on which these seals abound in the breeding season.

Making an arrangement with an old sealer living on Phillip Island, and greatly aided by Mounted Constable George Ardill,stationed on duty there, I ultimately got for the Melbourne Museum the fine old male, the adult female, and the young one, figured on our present plate in the attitudes of life when on land, as noted at the time, and now represented by Dr. Wild (the accomplished artist, formerly of the Challenger Expedition) from the preserved specimens set up with every attention to accuracy of form and position of the parts.

The task of procuring the required specimens was by no means an easy one, for not only is it difficult to land, even in the calmest weather, but if a boat approached the island by day the Seals would take to the water, and not return so long as the men were to be seen. It was therefore determined to land on the first calm evening, and bring blankets and food for the night, to be passed in some of the caves found there, so that, as the Seals came back at night to rest, the sealers might quietly emerge before daybreak, and, selecting an adult old male and female, make sure of them with heavy rifles used for the purpose, and take chance of catching a young one in the confusion. This was at last successful, and I was enabled to get accurate drawings of the diverse profiles of the male and female, and of all the soft parts while yet in the flesh.

- Frederick McCoy, 1880