93 
resembles No. 6 (No. 332 e.) in proportions and distance of grinders, 
but is only about two-thirds the size, and the blood-vessel on each 
side the palate, which in that skull is open, is here partly covered 
over with a thin layer of bone; the 4th upper grinder has a com- 
pressed simple root with a groove on the lower part of its outer side, 
and the 5th grinder is two-rooted. It is to be obseryed, that the 
Orwell specimen, No. 8, was a female, and that the nose of this and 
of skull No. 6 differ from the others in being rather longer, and in 
the grinders being rather further apart: is this the character of the 
female sex? and in both these skulls the 4th grinder is single-rooted: 
is that also a sexual character? It is to be hoped that the Danish 
or American naturalists who have the opportunity of examining these 
seals, will determine the question. 
It would thus appear, from what I have stated, that in this genus 
the form of the root of the grinders is very liable to variation; I 
have not observed any similar variation in the teeth of any other seal, 
and still believe that the form of the roots affords a good character 
in most of the genera. 
We have lately received from the West Indies the skin and skull 
of a seal which evidently belongs to the same genus as the crested 
seal of the northern hemisphere. The skull, or rather the teeth, 
when compared with those of the Greenland specimens, induce me 
to believe that it is distinct from them. It chiefly differs in the form 
of the outer upper cutting teeth and canines. In all the specimens, 
both old and young, from the North Sea, the outer upper cutting 
teeth and the canines are narrow and compressed. In the West 
Indian skull, which is that of a very young specimen, the outer upper 
cutting teeth and the canines are broad, strongly keeledon each side and 
longitudinally plaited within. In this skull the 4th grinder has only 
a single root, and the 5th grinder has two; the crowns of the teeth 
are plaited and tubercular like those of the North Sea specimens. 
The face is rather broader than in a skull of the northern kind of 
nearly the same size. This species may be called Cystophora antil- 
larum. 
We have received an imperfect skin of a seal from Jamaica, which 
was brought home by Mr. Gosse. It is unfortunately without any 
bones. The whiskers are short, thick, white, cylindrical, regularly 
tapering, and without any appearance of a wave or twist. In this 
character it most agrees with Phoca barbata. 
June 26, 1849. 
R. H. Solly, Esq., in the Chair. 
The Secretary reported that two living examples of Crotalus duris- 
sus had been presented to the collection by R. Davis, Esq., F.Z.S., 
