Order viii. Pinnipedia. Sea-lions, Seals, etc. 



J. A. Allen, History of North American Pinnipeds, U. S. Geol. & 

 Geog. Surv., 1880. 



St. G. Mivart, Notes on the Pinnipedia, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1885. 



The members of the PINNIPEDIA are constructed for a life in the 

 water, although some species, like the Sea-bears and Sea-lions, are 

 capable in emergencies of progressing on the land with considerable 

 rapidity, but the majority are practically helpless when out of the 

 water, and they progress on shore by a series of hitches affected by 

 the action of the ventral muscles. Their feet are webbed, and the 

 greater portion of their limbs is hidden within the skin. The body 

 tapers towards both ends like that of a fish, and is covered with a 

 thick coating of fat as a protection against cold, for most species of 

 this Order are boreal in their habitats. The food of these animals is 

 fish and other marine creatures, which they catch by swimming, or 

 as in the case of crustaceans, are taken from rocks, or the bottom of 

 the sea. While their lives are for the most part passed in the sea, 

 they always come to the land to bring forth their young. Widely 

 distributed, they are found in most of the seas of the Globe, and yet 

 are not very numerous in species. Gregarious by nature, they often 

 go in large herds, and certain of them, like the Fur Seal, are preyed 

 upon by Cetaceans, Such as the various species of Orcas or Killer 

 Whales, etc. Of their skins, that of the Fur Seal is most valuable, 

 but the species is rapidly verging towards extinction. Certain of 

 these aquatic animals are of enormous size, some, like the Walrus, 

 weighing nearly a ton. 



Fam. I. Otariidji'. Sea-lions. 



Aquatic carnivora, with the limbs inclosed in the general tegu- 

 ment beyond the knees and elbows. Five digits on each limb, the 

 first and fifth of the hind limbs generally the longest and stoutest, 

 those of the front limbs decreasing in size from first to fifth. Body 

 and neck elongate; fore feet nearly as large as the hind feet, the 

 latter capable of expansion, and with distinct claws on the three 

 middle digits ; front feet without claws ; tail very short ; when walking 

 hind feet are turned forward under the body, supporting it; ears 

 external; interorbital constriction of skull great; facial portion short, 

 rather broad; two central pairs of upper incisors with a transverse 



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