HARD W I CKE 'S S CI EN CE - G OS SI P. 



157 



gives an interesting account of this species, which, like 

 the preceding, is littoral in its habits, seldom frequent- 

 ing the open sea, but found generally in the neighbour- 

 hood of the coast ice, in retired situations. They are 

 known by the whalers as the " Floe rat," and their 

 food consists of various species of Crustacea and small 

 fishes. This is the smallest of the Northern seals, 

 and of very little commercial value : its flesh, how- 

 ever is eaten, and its skin forms the chief material of 

 clothing in Greenland. 



In appearance, this species is very like the common 

 seal ; but it is darker in colour, more particularly on 

 the back, and the spots in the adult are surrounded 



is copied from Karl Thorin's " Grundlinier Zoologiens 

 Studium," p. S3 (Stockholm, 1868). 



The claims of the Greenland Seal, F/ioca gran- 

 la7!dica{¥ah.), to a place in the British Fauna, although 

 long considered highly probable, were not perfectly 

 conclusive until, in January, 1S68, they were satis- 

 factorily established by the production of the animal 

 itself. A seal, recorded as belonging to this species, 

 was killed on the above date near the viaduct on the 

 Lancaster and Ulverstone Railway, and is now pre- 

 served in the Kendal Museum. Professor Turner 

 ("Journal of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. ix. p. 163) 

 says that he has himself examined this specimen, and 



Fig. 146. Greenland Seal {Fhoca griFnlandicn, Fab.), Adult and Immature. 



by oval-shaped whitish rings ; the young ones are 

 lighter in colour. The old male is said to emit a 

 most disgusting smell : hence one of its specific names, 

 " fcetida." The molar teeth are arranged in a straight 

 line along the jaws, and not obliquely, as in the 

 common species. As this seal is very likely to pass 

 unnoticed, should it occur on our coast, it will be well 

 to bear in mind that the arrangement of the molars 

 will at once distinguish it from P. vitiilina, the only 

 species with which it is likely to be confounded. 

 Professor Flower has given a minute description of 

 the skull of the Norfolk specimen in the "Proc. Zool. 

 Sec." for 1871, pp. 506-12. The figure of this species 



found the dentition exactly to agree with that of the 

 skulls of the Greenland seals with which he compared 

 it. The individual in question, a male, measured six 

 feet from the tip of the nose to the "point of the 

 hind toes," and the colour indicated the age to be 

 about three years. Previously to this, the claims of 

 this sjDecies to a place in our list rested principally 

 upon the skulls of two seals killed in the Severn, and 

 exhibited by Dr. Reilly at the meeting of the British 

 Association at Bristol in 1836. These skulls were 

 at first referred by Professor Nilsson to P. hispida, 

 but afterwards, both by that gentleman and Professor 

 Bell, determined to belong to P. grcenlandica. 



