18 



Monachus albiventer. Skull. From Cuvier, Oss. Foss. 



Muzzle rather elongate, broad, hairy, with a slight groove between 

 the nostriLs ; whiskers small, quite smooth, flat, tapering. Fore feet 

 short ; fingers gradually shorter to the inner one ; claws 5, flat, 

 truncate. Hiad feet hairy between the toes ; claws very small ; hair 

 short, adpressed, with very little or no under-fur. Skull depressed ; 

 nose rather depressed, rather elongate, longer than the length of the 

 zygomatic arch ; palate angularly notched behind. Cutting-teeth ^, 

 large, notched within, the middle upper much smaller, placed behind 

 the intermediate ones. Canines large, conical, sharp-edged. Grinders 

 1^, large, croAvded, placed obhquely with regard to the central pala- 

 tine line; crown large, conical, with several small conic rhombic 

 tubercles. Lower jaw angulated in front below, with diverging 

 branches, the lower edge of the branches rounded, simple. The 

 grinders, except the two first in both jaws, are implanted by two 

 roots ; their crown is short, compressed, conical, with a cingOlum 

 strongly developed on their inner side, and developing a small ante- 

 rior and posterior accessory cusp ; the upper jaw is much less deep 

 than in Halkhoerus ; the canines are relatively large, and the nasal 

 bones are much shorter. 



The feet, palate, and teeth resemble those of the genus Callo- 

 cephahis (C. communis), but the grinders are larger and less deeply 

 lobed ; and it has the smooth whiskers of the restricted genus Phoca 

 (P. harhata). It diff'ers from the latter genus in the depressed form 

 of the skull, the large tubercular grinders, and the angular termina- 

 tion to the palate. 



As the other subtropical Seal, Phoca troincalis (Gray, Cat. Seals, 

 B. M. 28), from Jamaica, described from an imperfect skin without 

 a skull, has similar small smooth wliiskers, it may very probably, 

 when its skull has been examined, be found to belong to this genus, 

 Avhich will then prove to be a subtropical form of the family. 



