Mammalia. 39 



indistinct spots or mottling, a character which is quite borne out by 

 the specimens in the British Museum. Immature skins exhil)it a 

 considerable amount of mottling, and I strongly suspect that the 

 Crab-Eating Seal is one of those species, the young of which shows 

 traces of spots, which are gradually lost as the animal grows older.^ 



Dr. Cook's photographs seem to show us in Ldbodon an animal 

 somewliat intermediate in its proportions between Lcptonycliotcs and 

 OmmatojjJiOca. Both head and body are thicker and lilunter than in 

 the former, but not so thick and blunt as in the latter form. The 

 long flat anterior portion of the skull has a distinct effect on the 

 physiognomy. The total length of the flat skins (in salt) reaches 

 from 6 to 7 feet (2000 millimetres) when measured from the tip of 

 the nose to the end of the tail. The thick and hairy tail itself reaches 

 a length of from 3^ to 4 inches (100 millimetres). All the flippers 

 are clothed with hair throughout their extent. The fore-flippers reach 

 a length of about 14 inches (350 millimetres) and have a greatest 

 breadth of 5^ inches (137 millimetres). They are provided with 5 nails. 

 The bilobed hind-flippers are provided with 3 rudimentary nails. 

 They are somewhat constricted at the base, where their width is only 

 about 7 inches (175 millimetres), but gradually expand posteriorly until 

 at about their centre their width is about 11 inches (265 millimetres), 

 and at their termination about 13 inches (325 millimetres), measured 

 from the extreme tip of one lobe to that of the other. Along their 

 outer edge, from the base to the tip of either lobe, their length is 

 about 16 inches (400 millimetres), measured along the centre, from 

 their base to the bifurcation of the lobes they reach about 10 inches 

 (250 millimetres). The lobes therefore extend posteriorly for a distance 

 of about 6 inches (150 millimetres) beyond the remainder of the flipper. 

 The details above may be taken as the average of the skins brought 

 home by the 'Southern Cross.' An immature specimen, evidently 

 moulting, since its back is smooth, whereas its flanks and flippers 

 are still woolly, supplies the following dimensions : total length of 

 skin (from tip of nose to tip of tail) 3 feet 6 inches (1050 millimetres), 

 length and greatest width of fore-flipper 9 inches X 5 inches 

 (225 millimetres x 125 millimetres), greatest lengtli and width at 

 centre of hind flippers 10 inches X 6 inches (250 millimetres x 150 

 millimetres). 



1 See Dr. Wilson's notes, infra, pp. 74, 75.— E. B. S. 



