REPORT ON THE SEALS. 59 



barbata. Occipital crests well marked, no sagittal crest, ridges at upper border of 

 temporal fossa distinct. No definite ridge along line of sagittal suture. Hard palate 

 with posterior border truncated and immediately in front both of the hamular-pterygoids 

 and the malo-zygomatic articulations. Posterior edge of vomer immediately above this 

 border and at once articulating with vomerine crest of palate bones ; vertical diameter of 

 vomer short, that of posterior nares contracted, and about one-half the transverse 

 diameter. Tympanic bulla somewhat more swollen, the apex is more truncated and the 

 outer part of its under surface is rougher than in Phoca vitulina ; it is also prolonged 

 outwards into a much thicker wall for the external auditory meatus, the aperture of 

 which looks forwards. Greatest width of zygoma about middle of arch and inter- 

 zygomatic width exceeding greatest cranial width. Post-canine teeth not set closely 

 together, nor oblique. Subcondyloid process of mandible broadly triangular, inverted, 

 distinct from the tubercle at the angle ; lower border of body more incurved than in 

 Phoca vitulina, so that the transverse diameter between the angles is much less in 

 Phoca grcenlandica than in Phoca vitulina ; coronoid long and pointed. 



Phoca hispida. Schreber. Einged-Seal or Floe-Rat. North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. 



Phoca hispida, Sclne'ber, Die Saugthiere, iii. p. 312, pi. lxxxvi., 1778. 



„ fcetida, Fabricius in Miiller, Zool. Dan. Prodr., p. viii., 1776, and Fauna groenlandica, 



p. 13, 1780. 

 ,, annellata, Nilsson, Skand. Faun., i. p. 362, 1820. 



The smallest species of the genus. 



Interorbital part of frontal more constricted than in any other seal. Occipital 

 crests feeble, no sagittal crest, ridge at upper border of temporal fossa distinct ; 

 no definite ridge along line of sagittal suture. Nasal bones elongated and 

 attenuated between frontal, not ankylosed together. Premaxilla articulating with 

 about anterior fourth of outer border of nasal. Hard palate cleft at posterior 

 border though not so deep as in Phoca vitulina, the base of the triangle between 

 the hamulars being wider than the sides ; posterior border of vomer scarcely visible in 

 cleft, and running very obliquely forwards for some distance before articulating with 

 vomerine crest of palate bone. Transverse diameter of orbit more capacious than in 

 Phoca vitulina and Phoca groznlandica. Tympanic bulla and external meatus closely 

 resembling Phoca vitidina. Foramen lacerum posterius very capacious, basi-occipital 

 perforated mesially so that basi-occipital is largely unossified. Post-canines not crowded 

 and not obliquely set, frequently quadricuspidate, the second cusp being the largest. 

 Subcondyloid process of mandible not triangular, but elongated into a vertical ridge, 

 somewhat inverted and forming the posterior border of the bone, but separated by a 

 notch from the tubercle at the angle ; lower border of body incurved opposite the last 



