564 PHOCA VITULINA HAT7EOR SEAL. 



those of the upper surface. Specimeus from Denmark and the 

 Atlantic coast of North America are indistinguishable from 

 those from Lower California, Washington Territory, and Alas- 

 ka. Specimens from the Pacific coast present the same wide 

 range of color- variations, and precisely the same phases as those 

 from the shores of the Atlantic. 



Captain Scammon gives the weight of two adult females from 

 the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as 56 aud 60 pounds respectively. 

 Mr. Michael Carroll gives the weight of adults (sex not stated) 

 as 80 to 100 pounds. Mounted specimens, apparently adult, 

 vary in length from three to five feet. Scammon says that on 

 the Pacific coast it " never exceeds six feet in length," and gives* 

 the length of the two above-mentioned females as respectively 

 from "tip of nose to tip of tail" 3 feet 8 inches and 3 feet 10 

 inches. Mr. Paul Schumacher gives the length of a "female 

 Marbled Seal," sent to the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 from Santa Barbara Island, California, as 6 feet from tip of nose 

 to the end of the hind flippers, which would make the length to the 

 end of the tail about 5 feet 6 inches. Lilljeborg gives the total 

 length to the end of the hind flippers as 5 feet 8 inches (Swedish) 

 or 1740 mm. Bell says, " Length of adult from three to five 

 feet ". \uthors generally give the length as from 3 to 6 feet. I 

 find the length of an adult (disarticulated) skeleton to be about 

 4 feet, or 1225 mm., while Lilljeborg gives the length of the 

 skeleton as 5 feet 1 inch or 1530 mm. In the large series of 

 skins and skulls I have examined very few were marked for sex, 

 and I find nothing explicitly stated by authors in relation to 

 sexual difference in size. 



Unlike the Phocafcetida, P. grwnlandicn, and most other Pho- 

 cids of the northern waters, the first coat is shed before or soon 

 after birth, but as to the exact time at which it is cast authori- 

 ties disagree. Mr. Bartlett, in describing a young Seal of this 

 species (wrongly identified at the time as Phoca fatida). born 

 in the Garden of the London Zoological Society June 8, 1868, 

 says : " It was born near the edge of the water, and in a few 

 minutes after its birth, by rolling and turning about, was com- 

 pletely divested of the outer covering of fur and hair, which 

 formed a complete mat, upon which the young animal lay for 

 the hour or two after its birth".* 



*Proc. Zool. Soc. Lmul., 1863, p. 205. 



