HOODED SEAL 



Harp Seal (see page 176). The two Seals are more or less 

 associated in their migrations and have somewhat similar 

 habits. The Hooded Seal chooses heavier and older ice 

 for the whelping ground, and instead of breaking a hole 

 through shallow sheets of ice it selects [ice-hummocks 



Fig. 41. Hooded Seal 



that may be approached from the open sea. This Seal does 

 not congregate in large, continuous herds but in small, scat- 

 tered groups and usually at some distance from the herds of 

 Harp Seal. 



The Hooded Seal is more wild and quarrelsome in disposi- 

 tion than the Harp and when angered inflates the hood on the 

 head. The female Hooded Seal usually fights for its young 

 and will die rather than desert it. 



Young Seals, after the first year, are known as "bedlamers" 

 in the vernacular of the sealers. 



Genus Mirounga 

 Dentition: Incisors, f ; Canines, l; Premolars, f ; Molars, x = 30 



Elephant Seal; Sea-elephant; Northern Elephant 

 Seal. — Mirounga angustirostris (Gill) 



General Description. — A very large Seal, the largest of the 

 true Seals; males much larger than females and having a long 

 proboscis of cavernous tissue capable of inflation, which is 

 somewhat suggestive of an Elephant. Body huge and ponder- 

 ous; hind limbs without nails; color brownish to slaty. Males 

 reach maximum length of about 1 8feet, females half that length. 



Geographical Distribution. — Now restricted to the Island 

 of Guadalupe, Mexico, southwest of San Diego, California, 



179 



