VI -ON THE WEST INDIAN SEAL (MONACHUS TROPICALIS, 



GRAY). 



Bv Fredkrick W. Truk and F, A. LucAS. 



lu October, 1883, the Xatioual Mii«ouiii received, through the kiudly 

 offices of Prof. Felipe Poey, of Havana, Cuba, the mounted skin of a 

 seal which had been on exhibition in that city during the summer of 

 the same year. The seal was reported to liave been captured in the 

 vicinity of Havana. Upon arrival at the Museum it proved to be, as 

 ]*()ey had suspected, a si)ecimen of the seal which Gray had i)rovision- 

 iilly referred to the genus 21onachus, under the name of M. tropicalis. 

 The skin was imperfectly prepared, and it was deemed advisable, there- 

 fore, that it should be remounted. Upon examination it was found that 

 tlie skull was mounted in the skin, and that the bones of the fore and 

 hind flippers had not been removed. Owing to this Ibrtunate accident 

 it is possible to describe for the first time the cranial characters of the 

 si)ecies. 



The specimen is a female, and apparently adult, though not aged. Its 

 length, measured from the end of the tail to the extremity of the muz- 

 zle, in a straight line, is fifty-three inches. 



So far as external characters are concerned, the Havana specimen 

 agrees with the description of Gosse, published in his "A Naturalist's 

 Sojourn in Jamaica," which appeared in 1851, and with that of Gray, 

 founded upon an imperfect specimen now or until roi^ently in the British 

 iVIusenm. It presents, however, several minor diti'erences, the more im- 

 portant of which we will now proceed to discuss. 



The discrepancy which first meets our attention relates to the color of 

 the whiskers. These are stated by Gosse to be of a "black hue, with 

 transverse bars of gray." In the specimen before us the whiskers are 

 horn-colored, with blackish tips. 



The color of the body is described by Gosse in his earlier pages as 

 "intense and uniform black"; but subsequently, when treating of a speci- 

 men captured by Wilkie, he gives a different description, and one which, 

 with very slight modification, is ai)pli(;al)le to the 8i)ecinien before us. 

 The fur of Wilkie's specimen is said to have been " nearly uniCorni 

 dirty ash-gray; black at the base and gray at the tips of the hairs. It 



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