THE ELEPHANT-SEAL 



735 



Habits 



In habits the crested seal is essentially migratory and pelagic, trav- 

 eling south in winter, and always preferring the drift ice of the open 

 sea to the neighborhood of land; indeed, it very seldom, if ever, resorts to the shores 

 or even to outlying rocks. Compared with the Greenland seal, the present species 

 is a comparatively rare one, and is nowhere met with in large numbers, although 

 apparently more numerous in the Gulf of St. Lawrence than in most of its haunts. 

 Although at times the sexes are said to live apart, they usually associate together in 

 family parties or small herds during the breeding season, previous to which the males 

 engage in fierce contests for the possession of the females. While these fights are 

 going on, the males utter cries which may be heard at a distance of several miles. 

 The young are born on the ice, far away from land, during March; and in defense 

 of their offspring both parents will lose their own lives rather than escape by flight. 

 In disposition, the crested seal is much fiercer and bolder than any of the other 

 members of the family; and it will not unfrequently turn upon its aggressor, so that 

 its pursuit in the frail kayaks, or canoes, of the Eskimo is attended with a consider- 

 able share of danger, the protection afforded to the head by the inflated sac render- 

 ing the males difficult to kill in the ordinary manner by means of clubs. What is 

 the precise use of the appendage in question has not yet been fully determined; but 

 from its presence in the males only it may be inferred to be a sexual feature analo- 

 gous to the antlers of the deer. It was estimated some years ago that the total num- 

 ber of these seals annually killed in Greenland did not exceed 3,000. In addition to 

 fish, the crested seal feeds largely upon cuttles and squids. 



THE ELEPHANT-SEAL 

 Genus Macrorhinus 



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

 the nose of the male takes the form 

 of a short proboscis, which, though 

 generally hanging in a limp condi- 

 tion, can be expanded and dilated 

 at the will of its owner. The end 

 of this proboscis is obliquely trun- 

 cated, and penetrated by the nos- 

 trils, and the whole organ communi- 

 cates a most peculiar and almost 

 ridiculous physiognomy to the 

 animal. The female, however, re- 

 sembles an ordinary seal in the 

 form of the head. The teeth (which 

 are shown in the accompanying 

 woodcut) are very small in pro- 

 portion to the size of the head; those of the cheek-series being of simpler struc- 

 ture than in the crested seal, and each inserted only by a single root. In the hind- 



THE UPPER TEETH OF THE ELEPHANT-SEA!,. 



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. 



