t06 FAUNA AMERICANA.. 



Species. 



1. Phoca cristata, Sea lion. 

 Phoca leonina. Fab. 



Char. Essent. A sort of moveable hood at- 

 tached to the top of the head, susceptible of 

 erection and of being extended over the eyes and 

 snout ; four superior incisors, of which the late- 

 ral are largest ; four inferior incisors. 



Dkviensions. Total length, seven or eight feet. 



Description. Forehead of the adult male, car- 

 rying a sort of large tubercle, susceptible of 

 swelling like a bladder, and carinated in its mid- 

 dle part; (besides the true nostrils, there exists 

 false ones in the same tubercle, and the number 

 of these false nostrils vary according to the age 

 of the individual ;) thirty-two teeth in all, viz. four 

 incisors above and below; one canine, and five 

 molars on each side of both jaws ; bristles of the 

 whiskers large, nearly round, and whitish, annu- 

 lated and compressed at base, obtuse at their ex- 

 tremities ; iris brown ; hairs soft and long, with a 

 very deep woolly base. 



Difference occasioned by age. — ^At one year, 

 colour white, with the middle of the back livid 

 gray; at two years, of a snow-white, with a narrow 

 brown line on the back : the old ones having the 

 head and feet black ; the rest of the body equally 

 black, but checkered with gray spots : the back 

 remaining always obscure. 



