MAMAfALS. 603 



I may here mention two very curious sexual peculiarities 

 occurring in seals, because they have been supposed by 

 some writers to affect the voice. Tlie nose of the male 

 sea-elephant {Macrorhinus proboscideus) becomes greatly 

 elongated during the breeding-season and can then be 

 erected. In this state it is sometimes a foot in length. 

 The female is not thus provided at any period of life. 

 The male makes a wild, hoarse, gurgling noise, which is 

 audible at a great distance and is believed to be strength- 

 ened by the proboscis; the voice of the female being differ- 

 ent. Lesson compares the erection of the proboscis with 

 the swelling of the wattles of male gallinaceous birds 

 while courting the females. In another allied kind of 

 seal, the bladder-nose (Cystophora cristata), the head is 

 covered by a great hood or bladder. This is supported by 

 the septum of the nose, which is produced far backward 

 and rises into an internal crest seven inches in height. 

 The hood is clothed with short hair and is muscular; it 

 can be inflated until it more than equals the whole head in 

 size! The males when rutting fight furiously on the ice, 

 and their roaring '' is said to be sometimes so loud as to 

 be heard four miles off.^' AYhen attacked they likewise 

 roar or bellow ; and whenever irritated the bladder is 

 inflated and quivers. Some naturalists believe that the 

 voice is thus strengthened, but various other uses have 

 been assigned to this extraordinary structure. Mr. R. 

 Brown thinks that it serves as a protection against acci- 

 dents of all kinds; but this is not probable, for, as I am 

 assured by Mr. Lament, who killed six hundred of these 

 animals, the hood is rudimentary in the females and it is 

 not developed in the males during youth.* 



Odor. With some animals, as with the notorious skunk 

 of America, the overwhelming odor which they emit 

 appears to serve exclusively as a defense. With shrew- 

 mice (Sorex) both sexes possess abdominal scent-glands, 



*0n the sea- elephant, see an article by Lesson, in "Diet. Class. 

 Hist. Nat.," torn, xiii, p. 418. For the Cystophora, or Stemraatopus, 

 see Dr. Dekay, "Annals of Lyceum of Nat. Hist. New York," vol. 

 i, 1824, p. 94. Pennant has also collected information from the 

 sealers on this animal. The fullest account is given by Mr. Brown, 

 in " Proc. Zoolog. Soc," 1868, p. 435. 



