CONTEIBUTIOX TO THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF 

 THE EARED AND EARLESS SEALS (GENERA ZALO- 

 PHUS AND PHOCA) 



By A. Brazier Hovvell, 



Colluhoratoi; UMted States National Museum 



FOREWORD 



The interest of anatomists has long been intrigued by the Pinni- 

 pedia and it is probable that no order of a comparable size has been 

 more often investigated from this standpoint. The pinnipeds have 

 a very important place in the program of the author relative to his 

 investigation of aquatic adaptations in mammals and he at first 

 thought that this work with the order would be rendered relatively 

 easy by the apparently fuU reports upon both the myology and 

 osteology, illustrated in some cases by handsome plates, with which 

 he was casual W acquainted. Only a little investigation was needed, 

 however, to establish the fact that these reports were not of g<reat 

 aid, for they are chiefly descriptive, and many discrepancies were 

 apparent. 



Of the earlier dissections of pinnipeds those by Duvernoy (1822), 

 Plumphre}^ (1868), and Lucae (18T3) are all important, although 

 some of their details are to be viewed with suspicion and many of 

 their conclusions are extremely unlikely. But scant attention need 

 be paid them in the present report, however, for their details are well 

 incorporated in the paper of W. C. S. Miller (1887), who discusses 

 them with really unnecessary fullness, and their inclusion here 

 would not only constitute repetition, but would be otherwise unde- 

 sirable as befogging the report to a bewildering degree. Compari- 

 sons have therefore been made only with the findings of Miller and 

 Murie, where these investigators differ from conditions as en- 

 countered by me. Miller was an accomplished anatomist who dis- 

 sected a variety of pinnipeds, presumably with great skill. His text 

 treats fully of a Phoca vitulina and an ArctocepJialus, although com- 

 parisons are made where desirable with several other phocids and an 

 Otari-a {"= Eumetojnas) . A serious defect, however, is that his re- 

 port is unillustrated as far as concerns the musculature, and his de- 

 No. 2736.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 73, Art. 15. 

 86377—28 1 1 



