Notes on Antarctic Scats. 73 



distinguished from the " False Sea-leopard" or Weddell's Seal, mainly, 

 so far as the skin is concerned, by the length of the fore limbs, and 

 the presence of vivid black spots in addition to the tawny spots 

 encroaching upon the dark grisly-grey of the back and sides. The 

 line of division between this grey colour, which deepens to grisly- 

 black on the mid-dorsal line, and the tawny orange of the belly and 

 lower part of the sides, is very distinct, though broken by a number 

 of irregular mottlings of black and dark grey. These dark irregular 

 markings are most plentiful on the orange colour of the shoulders and 

 flanks, where they are almost confluent ; on the sides they are less 

 frequent, and, though plentiful on the sides of the face and jaw and 

 under the chin, there is a large space of almost unspotted orange skin 

 under the throat and neck, and another immediately behind the 

 spotted shoulder. The hind-flippers are richly marked with black 

 and orange spots and splashes, very much more so than on the fore- 

 flippers ; and whereas the ends of the digits of the hind limbs are 

 black, those of the fore limbs are of a rich orange colour. Nails are 

 discoverable on all the flippers, and the same may be said of the nails 

 in every one of the four species of southern Seals. They are perhaps 

 least conspicuous in Ommatophoca rossii. In the fore limbs of the 

 Leopard-Seal they are very long and well formed. But in colouring, 

 the most characteristic point seems to be the presence of black, as 

 well as pale tawny, spots on the grey of the upper part of the sides. 



Mr. Borchgrevink (p. 65) first mentions the species in the pack- 

 ice early in January, when two young ones were obtained, and he 

 also speaks of a " large sea-leopard " in whose stomach was found 

 remains of an octopus. He also says that it bred in Eobertson Bay 

 (p. 237), and that young were frequently found on the sledge journeys. 

 It is a pity that more specimens were not brought home. Mr. 

 Borchgrevink also writes (p. 170) on Sept. 11th : " I killed a female 

 Seal near the edge of Dugdale glacier. It was a Leopard (Steno- 

 rhynchics leptonyx). When I had skinned it, I cut it open, and, to 

 my surprise, found a nearly full-grown male young one alive in her. 

 As I had freed him, he seemed quite happy as he rolled about on 

 the ice in his soft smooth coat. I put him on my sledge, and drove 

 him to the stone hut, where we kept him alive on condensed milk, 

 until we were later on able to send him by sledge to Camp Eidley, 

 where Dr. Klovstad fed him from a bottle ! " The arrival of this 

 living Seal at the Camp is not mentioned in Mr. Hanson's Diary. 



