344 CARNIVORA. 



Gray's last sub-family is that of the Cystophorina or Crested Seals, 

 and comprises two genera. 



XII.— GENUS MORUNGA. 



The two species of this genus are found in California, the Falkland 

 Islands, and in general the temperate regions of the Southern Ocean. 



The Sea Elephant, Morunga dcphantina (Plate XXVI). This 

 enormous animal, when fully grown, has a length of twenty-five feet, 

 and a circumference of sixteen feet. It has a prominent proboscis, 

 which, as well as its great size, justifies its name. When fully developed 

 this feature attains in the male a length of about four feet. It has the 

 power of drawing in or extending it at will. The color of the male is a 

 dark grayish-blue or brown, and that of the female a dark olive-brown 

 above, and a yellowish-brown below. It has four fingers and a short 

 thumb on the fore-limbs, with perfect nails, but the hind-toes are nailless. 

 The hair is rather coarse, but the thick skin was formerlv in much 

 request for harness. The blubber yields an odorless oil, which burns 

 without smoke. Sea-elephants were formerly found in shoals in the 

 Antarctic seas, but have been almost entirely exterminated. One of the 

 Falkland Islands was called Elephant Island, from the number of tliese 

 creatures that frequented it; but when Lecomte was there, he found the 

 place deserted. Their food is chiefly cuttle-fish and sea-weed. 



It is a migrating animal, moving southward as the summer comes on, 

 and northward when the cold weather of the winter months would make 

 its more southern retreats unendurable. Their first migration is gen- 

 erally made in the middle of June, when the females become mothers, 

 and remain in charge of their nurseries for nearly two months. During 

 this time the males are said to form a cordon between their mates and the 

 sea, in order to prevent them from deserting their young charges. At 

 the expiration of this time, the males relax their supervision, and the 

 whole family luxuriates together in the sea, where the mothers soon 

 regain their health and strength. They then seek the shore afresh, 

 and occupy themselves in settling their matrimonial alliances, which 

 are understood on the principle that the strongest shall make his 

 choice among the opposite sex, and that the weakest may take 

 those that are rejected by his conquerors, or none at all, as the case 

 may be. None but the brave obtain the fair. 



