THE SEA-LEOPARD. 29 



Seal * ; but whereas iu the latter this is due to excessive fatness, in the former it seems 

 to result from the disproportionate weight of the head and shoulders. Nor are these 

 capable of being reared high off the ice, as they are in the case of the Sea Elephant, 

 whose fore flippers are still of some service as a support to the massive head and 

 shoulders. In Stenorhinchus the flippers, both hind and fore, are essentially swimmino- 

 organs, and to this end are long and powerful, with the first and fifth digits of the 

 hind flippers broadly palmated at the tips beyond the nails, though all the flippers, both 

 hind and fore, are still completely clothed with hair. The nails are fairly well developed 

 in the fore limbs, the first alone being rudimentary, the other four reaching well beyond 

 the edge of each digit. In the hind limb the nails of the first and fifth are small and 

 rudimentary, those of the second and fourth well formed and reaching to the edoe 

 of the digits, while that of the third reaches well beyond. 



Stenorhinchus is not so immune from the attacks of the Killer Whales as one 

 might infer from its size and strength. It has been reported in one case, a 

 young animal it is true, to have Jjeen seen very badly torn by wounds of the typical 

 character. No. 18 of our own collection has an extensive healed scar upon the crown 

 of the head, but of a shape which suggests rather damage done by movino- ice floes 

 than by a Killer Whale. 



Stenorhinchus is at once to be distinguished from all other seals by its cheek 

 teeth, which are not only larger and more powerful than those of any other Antarctic 

 form, but shaped each like a trident, with three long pointed cusps standing vertically to 

 the long axis of the jaws. The points of the two outer cusps in each tooth are curved 

 slightly towards the longer central one, which has itself also a slight curve backwards. 



The typical marking of the skin of this seal has been already detailed in the 

 ' Southern Cross ' report, and I have only here to add that the orange tint which 

 characterises the great majority of Museum seal skins, not only of this, but of all the 

 Antarctic species, is only less misleading in this case than in any of the other forms, 

 since the living Stenorhinchus has in some cases a tawny tint, characterisin o- the 

 weathered coat. This, when shed, is replaced by hair of as pure a grey as occurs in 

 any other of the seals. The younger animals appear to be of a more silvery grey than 

 the older. The orange tint, which is so very marked a feature in the majority of 

 Museum seal skins, particularly of the earlier specimens, is, in the case of Lobodon, 

 Leptonychotes, and Ommatophoca, wholly misleading, not one of them having anythino- 

 approaching it in life. It results chiefly from the gradual absorption of disorganised 

 fat into the hair, fat which, in life, is almost colourless, but becomes dark yellow after 

 death and in the course of time. The only tendency to a brown colouration in the 

 living Antarctic seals is iu the hair of the weathered coats ; but this is always of a 

 very moderate tone, and never aj^proaches orange yellow ; it should rather be described 

 as a brownish bufi" in Lohodon, and a dusky brown in all the others. 



* See, however, Voy. of ' Scotia,' ojj. vit., p. 222, where Dr. Pirie writes that this seal " has been seen to 

 come up alongside a floe on which the penguins were resting, seize one in its huge jaws, and sweep down again 

 with its prey." 



