358 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Appx. 



The Crab-eater, the common White seal of the Antarctic pack- 

 ice, is the most variable in appearance of all the Southern seals. 

 In the summer months it is possible to find a group of chocolate- 

 brown seals with a very beautiful silver sheen and handsome 

 dappling on the sides of the neck and flanks and shoulders. The 

 flippers may be a rich dark brown with blacker shades, and nothing 

 on the whole could be less appropriate than to call the animal 

 white. Again, one may find an individual with a chestnut dappling 

 on a creamy coloured coat, with a long line of chocolate colour 

 down the centre of the back. This animal would be moulting, 

 and by casting off the coat which has been bleached to a creamy 

 white, would become converted into the dark and handsome silvery- 

 coated seal described above. But in an old seal the coat may have 

 become bleached to such an extent as to have lost all trace of the 

 characteristic dappling on the flanks and shoulders. In this con- 

 dition it is as nearly white as possible. It is not so large as either 

 of the seals that I have yet described, nor is it nearly so large as 

 the Weddell seal, which will be mentioned later on. The Crab- 

 eater runs to about eight feet in length, and is one of the most 

 active seals in all its movements. It lives almost entirely upon a 

 shrimp-like crustacean which it collects in large numbers with 

 mud and gravel by grouting along the bottom of shallow seas or 

 along the submerged foot of an iceberg. The use of the extra- 

 ordinary development of the lobes of the post canine teeth in this 

 seal was suggested by Captain Barrett Hamilton, in an article on 

 the seals of the ' Southern Cross ' collection. These lobes, as he 

 pointed out, form a sieve when the jaws are closed, through which 

 the water can be ejected from the mouth, while the mud and 

 crustaceans are retained and swallowed. There is probably some 

 object to be served in the swallowing of mud and gravel with the 

 food, as it is a habit common to many of the seals, and the most 

 probable object to be gained by so doing is the trituration of the 

 shells and bones of the fish and crustaceans which form their staple 

 diet. 



The Crab-eater, or White seal, is to be found in little groups 

 of from three to four or six, lying out in the sun on the floes of the 

 Ross Sea pack ; and in this tendency to collect in companies it 

 differs markedly from the next one to be mentioned, the Ross seal, 

 which has, without exception, always been found alone. 



The Ross seal is the smallest of all, and is not often found of 

 a greater length than seven or eight feet. It is a blackish or 



