4 H. W. MARETT TIMS. 



(No. 24) the pigment was confined to the cutis, the hair but just showing through the 

 skin on the body, though it was rather more evident -on the head. In the older 

 specimen (No. 25) the body was covered with hair, the limbs alone being naked. The 

 dorsal aspect of the trunk is of a uniform dark olive-green colour, the ventral surface 

 being paler, more particularly in the region of the throat where the colour tends to 

 yellow. Along the sides of the body are numerous elongated "splashes" of a 

 yellowish-grey colour. Similar splashes, though less numerous, are also present on 

 the ventral surface. The limbs are very dark in colour, the plantar surfaces of the 

 toes being almost black. Both manus and pes are destitute of hair. Even in this 

 specimen the pigment is largely present in the cutis, from which it seems to travel up 

 into the hairs.* 



At what age the colouration makes its appearance is uncertain, as there is a very 

 considerable difference in size and age between the oldest uncoloured specimen (No. 23) 

 and the two under consideration. 



These animals appear to undergo considerable alteration in colour shortly after 

 birth. Major Barrett-Hamilton (loc. cit.} describes the skin of a young male (? three 

 months) as being slatey-grey above and dirty white on the under surface of both body 

 and nippers. The " splashes " mentioned above seem to be of a more permanent 

 character, for the same author speaks of a " series of dirty white spots running 

 obliquely forwards, arranged almost in rows and give the impression that they are 

 iliscontinuous streaks." This impression is not confirmed by these specimens. The 

 post-natal alteration in colour is probably due to a shedding of the hair. 



Hair. As already mentioned the hair is just emerging through the skin of the 

 trunk in foetus No. 24. In the oldest specimen (No. 25) the hair on the body was 



5 mm. in length and about half as long again on the head. The hairs are straight, 

 v/ith a slight tendency to curl, soft and smooth ; they are closely apposed to the 

 surface and firmly adherent to the skin by their roots. Over the body the general 

 direction is backwards, but on the limbs the hair slopes towards the borders and away 

 from the median line of the limb itself. 



Seen under a lens the hair is of uniform diameter throughout the greater part of 

 its length, but towards the free extremity it tapers somewhat abruptly to a point. 

 Pigment is visible in the central axis of the tapering portion but is absent from the 

 remainder of the hair. 



The different genera of the Phocidse exhibit differences in the nature of the early 

 hairy covering and also as to the period of shedding. Wright, quoted by Turner (11), 

 describes the hair in Phoca vitulina as long, whitish, curly or woolly, and shed " in 

 utero " in the early part of June ; the hairs of the newly-born being of the same colour 

 and quality as those of the mother. This, Wright thinks, is consistent with the fact 



* At a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Leicester, in 1907, Professor 

 Simroth drew attention to a similar fact in Cricetus frumcntarius, in which the black pigment in the young 

 animal is found only in the cutis, but later on in the hair. 



C 



