600 PHOCA FOSTLDA RINGED SEAL. 



Nerpa, Russian. 



Einged Seal; Marbled Seal; Floe Eat, English. 



"Pickaninny Pussy, young, pigeon-English of the whalers" (KUMLIEN). 



IBodach, Hebridian. 



EXTERNAL, CHARACTERS. Adult, generally blackish-brown 

 above; darkest on the back, lighter on the sides, with large 

 oval, whitish spots ; beneath nearly uniform yellowish-white; 

 nose and ring round the eye usually black ; mystacial bristles 

 and claws dusky or blackish ; pelage rather harsh. Length of 

 the adult male, 5 to 6 feet; female smaller. 



The newly -born young are usually white or yellowish- white ; 

 the pelage soft and woolly. At the age of about four weeks 

 this gradually gives place to the coarser, more rigid pelage of 

 the adult, and the color changes to dusky, marked sparsely 

 with small blackish spots. Yearlings are often yellowish- 

 white ; dusky along the middle of the back, with here and there 

 small spots of blackish. 



There is a wide range of individual variation in color, in the 

 newly-born young as well as in the adults, as the following re- 

 marks will show. 



Three adult specimens from Disco Island, Greenland, pre- 

 sent the following variations in color : In No. 8699 (Nat. Mus.) 

 the general color above is yellowish-white, irregularly mottled 

 on the back with oblong spots and streaks of dusky or bluish- 

 black; whole lower parts uniform yellowish-white. In No. 

 8700 (Nat. Mus.) the dorsal surface is everywhere marbled with 

 light spots having dark centres. There are also patches of 

 dark brown of very irregular outline. The dark-centred light 

 rings are much more distinct than in No. 8699. No. 8698 is 

 yellowish- white marbled with dark brown, the latter tint form- 

 ing chains of dark-centred light spots. The front part of the 

 head is blackish; the lower parts are uniform yellowish-white. 

 Several yearling specimens, from Cumberland Sound, collected 

 by Mr. Ludwig Kumlien, are whitish or yellowish-white, with 

 small dusky or blackish spots. 



Wagner has described a specimen from Labrador as having 

 the back blackish-brown, with a greenish-gray shimmer, and 

 marked with spots of yellowish of varying size, some of them 

 occurring singly, and others joined in pairs into 8-shaped figures; 

 on the sides they form groups of rings, rather symmetrically 

 arranged on the two sides of the body ; lower surface pale yel- 

 low, with a tinge of olive. A younger specimen, also from 



