38 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



It must be understood therefore that in the least mottled examples the dark 

 brown colour appears only on the flippers hind and fore, and in the shape of a few 

 more or less perfect rings on the head, tail, flanks, and shoulders. Plate IV., and 

 Fig. 3 of Plate V. in the ' Southern Cross ' Report, which are from coloured drawings 

 of my own, represent sufficiently the points to which I have here referred, and I have 

 not deemed it necessary to repeat them. These two plates also illustrate the changes 

 which this seal undergoes in the course of the ensuing year. The whole coat changes, 

 gradually during the winter months, and much more rapidly during the summer, to a 

 creamy whiteness by bleaching, while the dark brown ring-marks and the flippers also 

 fade to a pale and often hardly discernible buff. I speak still only of the young adults. 

 The result of this bleaching is to produce a creamy-coloured seal, which has in conse- 

 quence been named the "White" Antarctic Seal. It is applicable only to the bleached 

 and weathered coat of summer, which is once more shed in January for the darker 

 brown. In Plate V. of the ' Southern Cross ' Report are shown first the bleached and 

 weathered hinder quarters of a young adult in Fig. 1, then the moult commenced in 

 Fig. 2, and lastly the new coat in Fig. 3. As age advances, and particularly in the 

 males, the development of the paler shades becomes more and more complete, until in 

 advanced age there is no longer any trace to be found of the dark brown under-colour, 

 and neither ring-marks nor mottling make their appearance either in the new coat or 

 the old. 



Thus one may describe the most common phase of all as a seal of uniformly pale 

 colouring, creamy white in the weathered coat, and brownish grey with silvery tones 

 throughout in the newly moulted animal. 



The following analysis of the skins in the present collection will give some idea of 

 the comparative frequency of the various phases : 



i. White or buff skins with no markings, Nos. 5, C, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 20, 21, 22, 80, 57, 58, 01, 03. 

 ii. Skins with some faint markings, Nos. 17, 29, 59 (the last with marks on hind quarters only). 

 iii. Skins with distinct and extensive markings, Nos. 19, 28, 39. 



Skin No. 39 is exceptionally handsome ; along the top of the head and back it is 

 silver-grey, but along the sides, from the face to the flanks, the white spots or splashes 

 are distinct from one another, leaving more or less chocolate-brown in the form of ring 

 marks between them. The fore and hind flippers are chocolate-brown, and the tail 

 brown spotted with white. It is the confluence of the white spots which causes the 

 loss of the characteristic dappling. The whiskers are twisted, each on its own axis, as 

 is the case with all the Antarctic seals. Each bristle is white with the terminal third 

 black. The iris is dark brown, and the reflex to be seen in the vertical slit-like pupil 

 when it opens to a lozenge shape is a brilliant emerald green. If the hair of Lobodon 

 is examined it is found to be rather more than half an inch in length, quite straight 

 and tapering finely to a point after coming to its greatest thickness about a quarter 

 of its length from the root. In the hairs of an old white seal no trace of pigment 

 crannies can be found. 



