PHOCA CRISTATA. 79 



of Greece, Dalmatia, and various parts of Italy, Corsica, 

 the Balearic Islands, Spain, and Barbaiy. Is also found in 

 the Black Sea. 



Phoca cristata. 



Phoca cristata, Desm. Mamm. Sp. 371 ; Gervais, Zool. et Paleont. 



Fi'anc. ^ith figiu'e, pi. 42. 

 Ci/sto2)hora cristata, Gray, Cat. Brit. Mus. 



Stem7natopus cristatus, F. Cuvier ; Keys. u. Blas. Wirbelth. Eiu'op. 

 Hooded, or Crested Seal. 



Desceiption-. — Incisors, -^ ; canines, | ; molars, -|^ = 30 

 in all (see Gervais, I. c, and Nat. Lib. ed. 6). [Desmarest, 

 however, gives 4 incisors in each jaw, making the total 

 number of teeth 32.] The middle incisors are very small, 

 the grinding teeth have their cutting portions marked by 

 three lobes, and many smaU indentations ; the back and 

 aU the upper smface of the head, body, tail, and feet bluish 

 grey when dry, slate-brown when wet, contrasting con- 

 spicuously with the yellowish white of the parts beneath. 

 In the adult male the anterior part of the head is covered 

 by a tuberculous body, like an inflated bladder, which is 

 wanting in the females and young. The general colour 

 becomes darker with age, in old individuals the upper 

 parts being almost black, with grey spots ; the males have, 

 in addition to the true nostrils, two spurious tubercular 

 ones, single or double, according to their age ; the first 

 claw of the fore-foot is the longest. 



Length of full-grown animals, 10 to 12 feet. 



Inhabits the I^orth Atlantic ; has been taken once, in 

 1843, on the Isle d'Oleron, west coast of France ; is veiy 

 abundant in Greenland, whence large quantities of the 

 skins are imported to Europe ; one was taken in the Orwell, 

 at Ipswich, in 1847. 



