THE MONK-SEAL 731 



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THE MONK-SEAL 

 Genus Monachus 



The monk-seal {Monachus albiventer} belongs to a group differing from the pre- 

 ceding by having but two pairs of incisor teeth in both the upper and lower jaws; 

 and also by the first and fifth toes of the hind-feet being much longer than the 

 others, and having their claws either rudimentary or absent. With the exception 

 of the first in each jaw, the cheek-teeth are implanted by double roots; and the total 

 number of teeth is thirty-two, against the thirty-four of the last group. The monk- 

 seal is distinguished from the other members of the group by the characteristics of 

 its cheek-teeth; these being large, hollowed on the inner side, and marked with a 

 prominent ring at the base, while the cusps on either side of the main cusp are very 

 small. Moreover, the claws on all the toes are small and rudimentary. The fur is 

 short, and is dark brown mingled with gray on the upper parts, and whitish 

 beneath. Full-grown males attain a length of from seven to eight feet or more. 



Together with its ally the West-Indian seal (M. tropicalis), the 

 monk-seal is the only species of the family inhabiting the warmer 

 seas; it is found in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and on the coasts of the 

 neighboring portions of the Atlantic, extending to Medeira and the Canary islands. 

 Although but little is known of its habits in a wild state, the monk-seal is very 

 readily tamed, and is the species which used to be exhibited in England as the 

 "talking-fish." 



The closely-allied West-Indian seal is of nearly the same color as 

 the monk-seal in the adult state, but the young are of a deep glossy 

 black. This species is interesting from its restricted distribution, and 

 the prospect of its impending extermination. Although discovered as far back as the 

 year 1494 by the flotilla of Columbus, when cruising in the West Indies, this seal, 

 up to the year 1883, was represented 'in scientific collections only by a single skin 

 sent to the British Museum in 1846 by Mr. P. H. Gosse. In the year 1687, when 

 Sir Hans Sloane visited the Bahamas, these seals were extraordinarily abundant, 

 the sealers sometimes killing as many as a hundred in a single night. In less than 

 two centuries they had, however, become exterminated from most of their former 

 liaunts, although some were known to remain on the rocky islands of Pedro Keys, 

 to the southward of Jamaica. In 1886, as Mr. F. A. Lucas tells us, a vessel visited 

 three small islands lying between Yucatan and Florida, known as the Triangles, 

 with the hope of finding a colony of these seals. In this hope the expedition was 

 not disappointed, upward of forty specimens being secured before the vessel was 

 compelled to put back from stress of weather. We are not told how many of these 

 seals were then remaining on the islands. 



It has been already mentioned that the seals of this group have the first and 

 fifth toes of the hind-feet much longer than the others, and since this is a charac- 

 teristic which they possess in common with the eared seals, it is interesting to learn 

 that the West-Indian seal has the power of bringing the hind-feet forward to a 

 certain extent when on land by curving the body upward. When straightening 



