VARIATION IN COLOR WITH AGE, ETC. 403 



" ALBINOS AND SEXUALLY ABNORMAL INDIVIDUALS. Three 

 or four albinos are found every year, which are of a pinkish 

 white color, sometimes mottled with liver-colored spots, and the 

 -eyes and the skin covering the flippers are also pinkish. On 

 one or two occasions I have seen the young pup black, except 

 a narrow light stripe extending from the corners of the mouth 

 along the sides to the posterior extremities. These conditions 

 .are very unusual. 



"Among the males we find sometimes an imperfect develop- 

 ment of the organs of generation. Individuals thus defective 

 are not distinguishable until the fourth year, when instead of 

 the neck thickening and the hair on it growing curly and longer 

 as in the perfect male, they retain the slim form of the neck, 

 characteristic of the female, non-development of the testes hav- 

 ing the same effect upon their development that castration has 

 upon the domestic bull. 



" Occasional instances of hermaphroditism also occur, in which 

 the same individual has a nearly perfect development of the 

 organs of .both sexes. These herd with the males, but are 

 readily distinguishable from them by their having the posterior 

 part of the body fuller and thicker as in the full-grown female. 



" DESCRIPTION OF THE YOUNG; VARIATION IN COLOR WITH 

 AGE, ETC. The young Seals are all born with a coat of short, 

 stiff black hair covering the whole body. When sixty days old 

 this is replaced by a very soft and silky covering three-fourths of 

 an inch in length. This is a fine steel-gray on the back and 

 white on the throat, breast, and abdomen. This coat of o verhair 

 is shed annually in August and September, becpming coarser 

 and darker with age each year. At seven years the back has 

 attained a dark brown, shading gradually to two or three shades 

 lighter on the belly. At the fifth year the hair on the neck and 

 shoulders grows coarser, curling at the ends, and on many of 

 these the curly tips are white, giving a grizzled or silver-gray 

 appearance. The fur commences to grow with the first coat of 

 overhair, as a soft light down, the overhair entirely covering 

 and concealing it. On the male this continues to grow to three- 

 eighths of an inch in length, increasing evenly in thickness and 

 fineness all over the body until the third year, when it is in its 

 greatest perfection. After this, as the male develops the char- 

 acteristics of his sex, as the thickening of the neck and shoul- 

 ders, the fur also becomes longer and thicker, while, as the 



