634 PHOCA GRCENLANDICA HARP SEAL. 



Dr. Rink states that at the present day the Greenlanders, as 

 well as the Europeans, divide the "Saddle-backs" into four or 

 five different classes according to their age, but that in familiar 

 language they only distinguish by different names the full-grown 

 animals from the half-grown ones, the latter being called " Blue- 

 sides ".* 



The young, when first born, are called by the Newfoundland 

 Sealers " White-Coats"; later, during the first moult, "Ragged- 

 Jackets"; when they have attained the black crescentic marks 

 they are termed " Harps ", or " Sadlers ", .and also "Breeding 

 Harps"; the yearlings and two-year-olds are called " Yonug 

 Harps ".or "Turning-Harps", and also "Bedlimers" (or "Bel- 

 lamers ", also spelled " Bedlamers "). The older and some recent 

 writers state that the mature pattern of coloration is not at- 

 tained till the fifth year, while Jukes, Brown, Carroll, and others 

 state that it is acquired in the third or fourth year. There is 

 also a diversity of statement respecting the sexual differences 

 of color in the adults, some writers affirming that the sexes are 

 alike, while others state that the female is without the harp- 

 mark, or has the dark markings of the male only faintly indi- 

 cated. Mr. Carroll says : "The reason why they are called harp 

 seals, or 'sadlers,' is, the male seal, as well as the female, has 

 a dark stripe on each side from the shoulders to the tail, leaving' 

 a muddy white stripe down the back. The male harp seal is 

 very black about the head as well as under the throat. . . , 

 The female harp is of a rusty gray about the head and white 

 under the throat." Both Jukes and Reeks, however, refer to> 

 the absence of the harp-mark in the female. 



Mr. Brown, in his account of the Seals of Greenland, has given 

 a very full account of the changes of color resulting from age 

 and sex, and, in default of a sufficient series of specimens, and 

 of personal experience, I transcribe his observations, as present- 

 ing the most explicit and detailed statement available. He 

 says : 



" It seems to be almost unknown to most writers on this group 

 that the male and female of the Saddleback are of different 

 colours ; this, however, has long been known to the Seal-hunters. 

 Male. The length of the male Saddleback rarely reaches (5 feet, 

 and the most common length is 5 feet, while the female, in gen- 

 eral, rarely attains that length. The colour of the male is of a 

 tawny grey, of a lighter or darker shade in different individuals, 



* Danish Greenland, its People and its Products, p. 124. 



