ROSS' SEAL. 45 



South Orkney waters, so that the capture by the Argentines of one with a body over 

 6 feet long is of special interest." 



Mr. Hanson on January 21st, 1899, notes in his diary that the stomach contents 

 in one case consisted of seaweed, and that " in the bowels he had an immense number 

 of worms." On January 24th in another case he mentions " Octopus and vegetable 

 stuff ; " and on February 3rd, " the stomach was quite full of food, consisting solely of 

 octopus." For the " worms," which were parasitic, we ourselves can vouch, for in each 

 of the three specimens that we obtained there was quite an enormous number of 

 nematodes in the stomach and tape-worms in the gut ; but of food remains, absolutely 

 none. Ross' Seal lives mainly on soft-bodied cephalopods, and to this end has 

 developed the incisors and canines into needle-pointed recurved hooks of great delicacy, 

 and has allowed its post-canine teeth to degenerate. The gums presumably can 

 manipulate such food as well as could molar teeth, and so we find that in some cases, 

 although developed, the post-canines are small and insignificant, whereas in others they 

 are loose and useless and occasionally absent altogether. To such a marked degree is 

 this degeneration of the cheek teeth progressive that it is rare to find two skulls to 

 which the same formula applies. 



The discrepancies brought to light by Captain Barrett Hamilton in the 

 series of the ' Southern Cross ' collection have been fully maintained by the six 

 additional skulls of our own. In this series of six skulls there are no less than five 

 variations, and it may be of interest here briefly to sum up the position by placing 

 these and several others for comparison together, though the question of variation in the 

 dentition of the seals generally is more fully discussed below (see p. 46). 

 BRITISH MUSEUM SERIES OF OJIMATOPHOCA SKULLS. 



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