658 ERIGNATHUS FARBATUS BEARDED SEAL. 



back and hind feet,* while Lepechin compared the woolly coat 

 of the young (his Phoca leporina) to that of Lepus variables. 

 Mr. Kumlien thus describes a foetal specimen taken April 28, 

 1878, near Middliejuacktwack Islands : " Color, uniform grizzly- 

 mouse color, with a tinge of olive-gray. Muzzle, crown, and 

 irregular patches on the back and fore flippers, white. From 

 the nose to the eyes a black line, with another crossing the 

 head behind the eyes, the two forming a perfect cross. Nails, 

 horn-blue, tipped with white. Iris, dark brown. Nose, black. 

 Muzzle, wide, lips full and fleshy, giving the animal a bull-dog 

 expression. Body, long and slender. Beard, pellucid, abun- 

 dant, white, stout, the bristles becoming shorter to ward the nos- 

 trils. Hind flippers, large and heavy, looking disproportionate 

 to the size of the body. Hair, rather short, but fine and some- 

 what woolly, interspersed with another kind, stiff and of a 

 steel-blue color, which I take to be the second coat. The Es- 

 kimo are firm in the belief that the Ogjook sheds its first coat 

 within the uterus of the mother. In this case there was cer- 

 tainly an abundance of loose hair in the uterus, but the speci- 

 men had been dragged some miles in its envelope over rough 

 ice, besides having been kept three or four days in an Eskimo 

 igloo among a heap of garbage, so that it is not to be wondered 

 at that the hair was loose. 



u There was little blubber on the specimen, and this was 

 thickly interspersed with blood-vessels. 



"The specimen measured as follows: 



Feet. Inches. 



Extreme length 4 7 



Length of head 8 - 25 



Width of muzzle 4.5 



From end of nose to eye 3.2 



Distance between eyes 3. 5 



Length of fore flipper (to end of nails) 7. 15 



Width of fore flipper- 4.3 



Length of hind flipper 1 



Greatest expanse of hind flipper 1 1. 5 " t 



SKULL AND SKELETON. The principal distinctive osteolog- 

 ical features of the Bearded Seal having already been given in 

 connection with the generic diagnosis, little is called for in the 

 present connection, since a detailed account of its osteology 

 does not fall within the scope of the present history of the species. 



* Archiv. fiir Naturg., 1841, p. 317. 

 t MS. notes. 



