REPORT ON THE SEALS. 57 



vomer can be seen through the opening. Hard palate either truncated or emarginate. 



Malar very elongated and reaching back almost to glenoid fossa. Vomer articulating on 



floor of nose only with crests of superior maxillte. Carotid canal opens either within 



boundary of foramen lacerum posterius or immediately anterior to it. Basi-occipital 



mesially keeled and seldom perforated. Anterior nares not quite terminal. Neck of 



considerable length. Palms and soles hairless, used in land locomotion, and manus and 



pes capable of being turned forwards. Three middle digits of pes short and feeble 



compared with pollex and minimus, and with well-developed nails. Outer upper 



incisor caniniform ; inner upper incisors with anterior and posterior cusps. Pernia- 



• 3-3 1-1 5-5 6-6 



nent dentition — m. 9 -^, c. j^j, p- c. g^-g or - — ; = 34 or 36. Mammae 4. Scapula 



with praespinous very much larger than postspinous fossa. Humerus without a supra- 

 condyloid foramen. Ilium with crest slightly everted and well in front of base of 

 sacrum. Femur with small trochanter usually present. Astragalus without a calcanear 

 process. 



Phocidj:. 



The family Phocidas has been divided into the following subfamilies — Phocinaa, 

 Ogmorhininaa, and Cystophorinae. 1 



PHOCIN.E. 



Anterior nares oblique and in front of infraorbital foramen ; beak but little prolonged 



in front of opening ; no postorbital process ; interorbital and interzygomatic parts of 



frontal greatly compressed laterally ; horizontal part of premaxilla thin ; widest part of 



hard palate behind molar teeth, and in line with hinder edge of maxillary root of zygoma, 



from which spot the palate diminishes in transverse diameter both forwards and 



backwards. Zygomatic process of maxilla not much prolonged back below malar. 



Inner wall of orbit entire or almost entire. Tympanic bullae swollen. Pterygoids 



3-3 1-1 5-5 



vertical in direction. Dentition — in. ^—5, c. t~tt, p. c. g— r = 34. Mandible with both 



a subcondyloid process and an angle. Nails strong in all the digits. Toes of hind 

 foot almost equal in length. Humerus with supracondyloid foramen. 

 This subfamily contains the genera Phoca and Halichcerus. 



1 For a number of years I have lost no opportunities of collecting specimens of the crania of the Seals of the North 

 Atlantic for the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, and from the courtesy of several gentlemen, more 

 especially the late Mr. Charles Edward Smith, Dr. A. J. M. Bentley, Dr. James Foulis, Captain M 'Donald, the Rev. 

 Dr. Joass, Dr. W. Stewart Campbell, Dr. W. Livesay, and Mr. Charles A. Anderson, the collection is now very 

 complete. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. PART LXVIII. — 1888.) YjV 8 



