670 ERIGNATHUS BARBATUS BEARDED SEAL. 



He often saw its skins in Aiuoor Land, and says they are an 

 article of traffic among the natives as far south as Saghalien 

 Island. But he appears to have seen only the skins in the 

 hands of the natives, and to give its distribution wholly on their 

 testimony. If the limits here assigned, and the locality of 

 Sitka, given by Wagner, be correct, it extends much farther 

 south, along the shores of the North Pacific, than it does on 

 the coast of Europe, but in each case its habitat is bounded by 

 about the same isotherm. 



HABITS, PRODUCTS, AND HUNTING. This large Seal, the 

 largest Phocid of the northern seas, appears to be nowhere 

 abundant, and is usually described as rather solitary, avoiding 

 the company of other species, and as never occurring in large 

 herds like the Harp Seal. Of its habits, as observed on the 

 Atlantic coast of North America, little has been recorded. If 

 the " Square Flipper" Seal of the Newfoundland sealers be this 

 species, of which Mr. Carroll has given some account, it is of 

 not unfrequeut occurrence off the shores of that island. From 

 the indications Mr. Carroll gives of its size, the form of the 

 hind flippers (from which it appears to derive its local name), 

 as well as the statement that it has four mainma3, seems to indi- 

 cate that it can be no other than the present species. As, how- 

 ever, the Gray Seal nearly approaches it in size, and is not 

 enumerated by Mr. Carroll nor Professor Jukes, and apparently 

 is not distinguished by the sealers (although it unquestionably 

 occurs in Newfoundland, as attested by specimens from there 

 in the National Museum), it seems questionable whether the 

 Gray and Bearded Seals are not confounded under the name 

 " Square Flipper ". Since Mr. Carroll's account, however, cor- 

 responds in general points so well with the Bearded Seal, I 

 venture to give it provisionally as a part of the history of the 

 species. His account in substance is as follows : The Square 

 Flippers are the largest Seals that are killed on the coast of 

 Newfoundland. They never congregate with any other Seals, 

 and are very scarce, not more than one hundred being taken 

 eacli sealing voyage throughout the island. Persons who live 

 along the northern bays, and " follow the gun" during the winter 

 and spring, kill a few of them. Many are seen in the Straits of 

 Belleisle, as well as about Saint Paul's Island, in the Gulf of 

 Saint Lawrence. They have their young on the ice about the 20th 

 of March. They are called Square Flippers because the flippers 



