146 



CARNIVORES. 



The Elephant-Seal. 



Genus Macrorhinus. 



In the elephant-seal or sea-elephant {Macrorhinus leoninus) the appendage on 

 the nose of the male takes the form of a short proboscis, which, though generally 

 hanging in a limp condition, can be expanded and dilated at the will of its owner. 

 The end of this proboscis is obliquely truncated, and penetrated by the nostrils, and 

 the whole organ communicates a most peculiar and almost ridiculous physiognomy 

 to the animal. The female, however, resembles an ordinary seal in the form of the 

 head. The teeth (which are shown in the accompanying woodcut) are very 



small in proportion to the size of 

 the head ; those of the cheek- 

 series being of simpler structure 

 than in the crested seal, and each 

 inserted only by a single root. In 

 the hind-feet the claws are want- 

 ing, and their first and fifth toes 

 are longer in proportion to the 

 others than is the case with the 

 crested seal. 



The elephant-seal is the largest 

 of all the pinnipeds, not even ex- 

 cluding; the walrus, adult males 

 attaining- a length of from 15 to 

 16 feet to the end of the body, 

 or, reckoning from the tip of the trunk to the extremities of the outstretched 

 flippers, a length of 20 or 22 feet. When in good condition the girth of an old 

 male will be as much as 15 or 16 feet, while the yield of oil from such an animal 

 will reach 210 gallons. The females are much smaller, not exceeding 9 or 10 feet 

 in total length. The general colour of the coarse and short fur is grey, with a more 

 or less marked blackish or olive tinge, darker on the upper than on the under- 

 pays. 



The typical elephant-seal formerly inhabited many of the islands 

 in the South Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as those in 

 the Antarctic Sea ; some of its favourite haunts being Juan Fernandez, the Falk- 

 land Islands, Kerguelen Land, New Georgia, the South Shetlands, and Tristan 

 da Cunha. In such places, during the earlier portions of this century and in the 

 preceding one, these animals were met with in enormous herds, as described in the 

 accounts of the voyages of Cook, Peron, and Anson. Northwards the elephant- 

 seal reaches Patagonia, and extends some distance up the western coast of South 

 America, but how far does not seem to be clearly ascertained, although it certainly 

 stops short of the tropic of Capricorn. When, however, we have crossed the Equator 

 and reached some distance north of the tropic of Cancer, elephant-seals are, or were, 

 once more met with between latitude 25° and 35° on the coast of California. The 

 difference between the Antarctic and Calif ornian elephant -seals is very slight 



THE UPPER TEETH OF THE ELEPHANT-SEAL, 



The two on the right are the incisors, the next the tusk, and 

 the five small ones to the left the cheek-teeth. -After Sir W. 

 H. Flower. 



Distribution. 



