70 SoutJicyn Cross. 



muzzle. The former was covered with fine and silky hairs., the latter 

 carried numerous fine black bristles. 



Mr. Bernacchi (p. 318) writes as follows: "Weddell's Seal 

 {Leftonycliotes weddelli) is found in great numbers along the coasts 

 of the Antarctic lands, but rarely in the pack-ice. As many as two 

 hundred of these Seals were seen together by the ' Southern Cross ' 

 Expedition, even at the farthest point south reached by the ship. 

 In the depths of winter it is still to be found near open pools of 

 water around large icebergs, which are kept open by the movements 

 of the bergs. In appearance it is the most rou7ided of all the 

 Antarctic Seals, with a bullet-like head, and large and prominent 

 dark-brown eyes, which appear bloodshot and protruding, though 

 always full of expression and pathos. It is slow, quiet, and very 

 inoffensive. The staple food of this Seal is crustaceous matter and 

 small fish. In colour the back and sides are dark grey, shading off' 

 into a tawny orange colour underneath. It was found breeding in 

 considerable numbers in Kobertson Bay during the spring of 1899, 

 the first young appearing early in September. 



In the latter month Mr. Bernacchi says that a common red 

 crustacean and a small fish like an anchovy, form the principal food 

 of the species, and on February 17th Mr. Hanson notes that the 

 stomach oi a, Leptonychotcs was quite full of a small fish like a whiting 

 {infra, p. 93). 



Perhaps the most characteristic point in the colour of the skin 

 of this Seal is the absence of vivid black amongst its many splashes 

 and spots of grey. The back and sides are dark grey, darker, as 

 usual, mid-dorsally, and shading off into a tawny-orange colour under- 

 neath, which is streaked in a very liberal fashion from head to tail 

 with grey of a varying depth, but not with black. Again, on the 

 upper parts, where the ground colour is dark grey, shading off' down 

 the sides into tawny orange, there are also longitudinal streaks and 

 splashes of pale tawny colour, often very pale, but none of black as are 

 found in the Ogmorliinvs. There is considerable difference apparently 

 in the ruddiness of the under parts of the two Leopard-Seals — the 

 True and the False. In Ogmorhinus the colour is more fulvous ; 

 whereas in Weddell's Seal the tawny colour exhibits almost a greenish 

 tinge by the free admixture of grey markings of varied intensity. 



Mr. Borchgrevink {t.c. p. 236) mentions Weddell's Seal as the 

 " best represented " species in the pack/ which, however, was not 

 the case ; but he does not seem to be well acquainted with the Seals 



' Mr. Bernacchi (p. 73) says that not one Weddell's Seal was met with in the 

 pack. 



