726 



THE CARNIVORES 



the other toes. When adult, the ringed seal is blackish gray above, with oval, 

 whitish rings, and whitish on the under parts ; its usual length varying from four 

 and one-half to five and one-half feet. The common seal, on the other hand, can be 

 easily distinguished from either of the others by its more massive teeth; the cheek- 

 teeth being very broad and thick, and set obliquely and close together in the jaws, 

 instead of being placed in the same straight line, and separated from one another by 

 distinct intervals. It is, moreover, a relatively stouter-built animal, with a larger 

 head, broader nose, and shorter limbs. 



The adult of the common seal is very variable in color, but the usual tint of the 

 hair on the upper parts is some shade of yellowish gray, with irregular dark brown 

 or blackish spots; the under parts being yellowish white, generally marked with 

 smaller spots of brown. The length of the male varies from five to six feet. The 

 young when first born are yellowish white, and are peculiar in that they shed their 

 woolly coat either on the day of birth or very shortly afterward. 



Distribution 



THE COMMON SEAI,. 



The common seal has a much wider distribution than the gray seal, 

 occurring not only in the North Atlantic but also in the North Pacific, 

 and extending on the shores of both oceans to the Arctic regions, and thus being 

 doubtless circumpolar. In the Atlantic it is found, though rarely, .as far southward 

 as the Mediterranean, and on the American side as far as New Jersey. In the 

 Pacific its southern limits appear to be marked on the Asiatic side by Kamchatka, 

 and on the American by southern California. It is, moreover, by no means con- 

 fined to the coasts, but ascends some of the larger tidal rivers to a considerable dis- 

 tance from their mouths; and it has been known to pass up the St. Lawrence to the 

 Great Lakes. In the North Atlantic this seal is strictly littoral in its habits, and 

 always avoids the ice of the open seas. It is very common in Spitzbergen and 

 Greenland; the number of individuals belonging to this species and the ringed seal 

 captured annually some years ago in the Danish settlements in Greenland being, 

 according to Dr. Robert Brown, upward of 700,000. In the British Islands, accord- 

 ing to the authors of Bell's British Quadrupeds, this seal "is found all round the 



