42 



EDWARD A. WILSON. 



fairly represents the distribution of the seal as regards number. It has never been 

 found in any abundance, but occurs generally in the pack ice, and almost always singly. 



Its range extends over a wide area (40 W. lat. to 160 E. lat.)from the neighbour- 

 hood of Alexandra Land westwards to the pack ice of Ross Sea, and in rather increasing 

 numbers towards the Balleny Islands. 



In the ' Discovery ' we procured two males and a female in our short passage of a 

 week through the belt of ice pack, while Dr. Davidson, in the ' Morning,' who made the 

 passage on two occasions, procured three more examples, all of which were males (figs. 27, 

 28, and 29, p. 44). It is strange how far more frequently males have been procured than 

 females. Of the four specimens obtained by the ' Southern Cross ' three were males. 



A young Ross' Seal has quite recently been reported by the Argentine Expedition 

 as having been captured on the shores of the South Orkney Islands. How young this 

 specimen may be I do not yet know, but it is interesting that it should have occurred 

 so near to land. No example has been found in the natal woolly coat, neither do we 

 even know whether Ommatophoca is born in the usual woolly covering of seal infancy 

 or whether this is shed in utero. Its breeding habits are wholly unknown, and though 

 it is safe to conjecture that it produces its young about the same time as the other 

 Antarctic seals, and in the open pack ice, it remains still for some expedition, wintering 

 as did the ' Belgica ' in the open pack, to prove it. 



The new-born young of Macrorhinus are described as black ; those of Cysto- 

 phora are white, born in a woolly coat, which is very soon discarded. Analogy, 

 therefore, does not help us to guess, though it will be a point of great interest to know, 

 what is the appearance of the new-born young of Ommatophoca, The white colour of 

 the young of Cystophora suggests, as Captain Barrett Hamilton says, that this species 

 may have been a more strictly Polar animal ; and one may perhaps expect the same 

 colour also in the young of Ommatophoca. 



There seems to be a far greater difference in the size of the male and female in 

 Cystophora and Macrorhinus than in Ommatophoca, a number of whose dimensions are 

 here given, taken from the animals in the flesh. 



' DISCOVERY ' COLLECTION. 



