PELAGE. 315 



( Young.) The general color of the upper surface of the body in 

 the young, previous to the first moult, is uniformly glossy black. 

 The region around the mouth is yellowish-brown. The neck in 

 front is grayish-black. The axillae are pale yellowish-brown ; a 

 somewhat darker shade of the same color extends posteriorly 

 and inward toward the median line of the belly, uniting on the 

 anterior portion of the abdomen. The greater part of the lower 

 surface, however, is dusky brownish-gray, the rest being black, 

 but less intensely so than the back. Specimens of equal age 

 vary much in color, some specimens corresponding nearly with 

 the above description, while others are much darker. On the 

 head and sides of the neck a portion of the hairs are found on 

 close inspection to be obscurely tipped with gray. After the 

 first moult the pelage becomes gradually lighter, through the 

 extension of the gray at the tips of the hairs, especially in the 

 females, the two sexes being at first alike. Contrary to what 

 has been asserted, the young are provided from birth with a 

 long coat of silky under-fur, of a lighter color and sparser than 

 the under- fur of the adults. 



PELAGE. The pelage in this species consists of an outer cov- 

 ering of long, flattened, moderately coarse hair, beneath which 

 is a dense coat of long fine silky fur, which reaches on most 

 parts of the body nearly to the ends of the hairs. The hairs are 

 thicker toward the end than at the base, but their clavate form 

 is most distinctly seen in the first pelage of the young. In 

 length the hair varies greatly on the different parts of the body. 

 It is longest on the top of the head, especially in the males, 

 which have a well-marked crest. The hair is much longer on 

 the anterior half of the body than on the posterior half, it being 

 longest on the hinder part of the neck, where in the males it is 

 very coarse. On the crown the hair has a length of 42 mm. ; on 

 the hinder part of the neck it reaches a length of 50 to 60 mm. 

 From this point posteriorly it gradually shortens, and near the 

 tail has a length of only 20 mm. It is still shorter on the limbs, 

 the upper side of the digits of the hind limbs being but slightly 

 covered, while the anterior limbs are quite naked as far as the 

 carpus. The males have much longer hair than the females, 

 in which it is much longer than in Eumetopias stelleri.* 



* From the; accounts given by most writers it would seem that Otaria jubata 

 is provided with a conspicuous mane, but in the few accurate descriptions 

 in which the length of the longest hairs is stated, the so-called "flowing 

 mane" which refers only to the greater length of the hair on the neck and 

 shoulders as compared with the other regions of the body does not appear 



