658 ERIGNATHUS PARBATUS BEARDED SEAL. 



back and hind feet,* while Lepechin compared the woolly coat 

 of the young (his Phoca leporina) to that of Lepus variabiUs. 

 Mr. Kuinlien thus describes a foetal specimen ta.keu April 28, 

 1878, near Middliejuacktwack Islands : " Color, uniform grizzly- 

 mouse color, with a tinge of olive-gray. Muzzle, crown, and 

 irregular patches on the back and fore nippers, white. From 

 the nose to the eyes a black line, with another crossing the 

 head behind the eyes, the two forming a perfect cross. Nails, 

 horn-blue, tipped with white. Iris, dark brown. Nose, black. 

 Muzzle, wide, lips full and fleshy, giving the animal a bull-dog 

 expression. Body, long and slender. Beard, pellucid, abun- 

 dant, white, stout, the bristles becoming shorter to ward the nos- 

 trils. Hind flippers, large and heavy, looking disproportionate 

 to the size of the body. Hair, rather short, but fine and some- 

 what woolly, interspersed with another kind, stiff and of a 

 steel-blue color, which I take to be the second coat. The Es- 

 kimo are firm in the belief that the Ogjook sheds its first coat 

 within the uterus of the mother. In this case there was cer- 

 tainly an abundance of loose hair in the uterus, but the speci- 

 men had been dragged some miles in its envelope over rough 

 ice, besides having been kept three or four days in an Eskimo 

 igloo among a heap of garbage, so that it is not to be wondered 

 at that the hair was loose. 



"There was little blubber on the specimen, and this was 

 thickly interspersed with blood-vessels. 



"The specimen measured as follows: 



Feet. Inches. 



Extreme length 4 7 



Length of head 8.25 



Width of muzzle 4.5 



From end of nose to eye 3. 2 



Distance between eyes 3. 5 



Length of fore flipper (to end of nails) 7. 15 



Width of fore flipper 4. 3 



Length of hind flipper 1 



Greatest expanse of hind flipper 1 1.5"t 



SKULL AND SKELETON. The principal distinctive osteolog- 

 ical features of the Bearded Seal having already been given in 

 connection with the generic diagnosis, little is called for in the 

 present connection, since a detailed account of its osteology 

 does not fall within the scope of the present history of the species. 



* Archiv. fiir Naturg., 1841, p. 317. 

 t MS. notes. 



