9G &n account of the Phoca cristata. 



these members is fifteen inches. The posterior swimming paws 

 are lunated at their extremities, and are fifteen inches in 

 length. They are furnished with five depressed claws, or ra- 

 ther horny lamina?, of which the external are largest. They 

 are all placed at some distance within the webbed extremities. 

 When expanded, the posterior extremities are fifteen inches in 

 breadth. The tail is six and a half inches in length, and at its 

 base is three broad. It is flattened, furnished with hair similar 

 to that covering the body, and tapers gradually to the tip. 

 Weight estimated at between five and six hundred pounds. It 

 is a full grown male. 



It was taken in a small creek emptying into Long-Island 

 Sound at East Chester, about fourteen miles from this city. 

 The animal made considerable resistance, but exhibited no 

 symptoms of fear. The captor succeeded in diverting his at- 

 tention by means of a dog, and was thus enabled to destroy 

 him by repeated discharges of his musket. 



In the foregoing description, the remarkable peculiarities 

 presented by the teeth cannot escape notice. The incisors re- 

 semble the canine so much in form, that their actual position 

 alone can serve to point out their nature. Pennant, in the Arctic 

 Zoology, describes four above and four, below, being led into 

 this error by confounding the laniary teeth with the incisors. 

 The molares, or what with more propriety may be designated 

 as jaw teeth, are very small in proportion to the size of the 

 animal, hardly exceeding those of a child of five 3'ears old. 

 The whole number of teeth in this tribe, varies from thirty to 

 thirty-six. It is a curious coincidence that the different spe- 

 cies distinguished by a great developemeut of the hood, or ap- 

 pendage to the head, are equally remarkable for the same num- 

 ber of teeth. Thus the Ph. leonina, Gm. (proboscidea, Peron.) 

 and the Ph. cristata, Gm. have but two incisors below, indi- 

 cating a very natural division in this partially known family. 

 The uses of the hood are obscure. The captor of this ani- 

 mal relates, that when he first commenced his attack, he 



