200 COMMON SEAL. 



cave, the muzzle narrowed, but rounded. Tlie 

 neck is short, full, and round; the body elongated, 

 large, round, of nearly equal girth for half its length, 

 then tapering to the tail. The fore limbs are very 

 short ; the foot of an oblong form, its anterior out- 

 ine curved. Of the five toes the first is longest, 

 Jie rest gradually shorter. The claws are long, 

 tapering, roundish, with a blunt point. The fore 

 legs are widely separated ; the hind ones, on ths 

 contrary, are closely approximated, directed back 

 wards and inwards, involved in the skin, and be- 

 coming free only at the ankle joint. The foot is at 

 first round, but the toes expand so as to form a fan- 

 snaped paddle of a triangular form, having its ter- 

 minal outline concave ; the first toe a little longer 

 than the fifth ; the claws of moderate length, very 

 slender, nearly straight, depressed, and tapering to 

 a blunt point. The tail is very short, flattened, 

 and blunt. The nostrils are linear, ten and a half 

 lines in length, anteriorly two lines and three quar- 

 ters distant from each other, posteriorly ten lines 

 and a half. The eyes are large, prominent, and 

 placed two inches apart. The apertures of the ears 

 very small, with a conical flap in front. 



The pile or fur is short and stiffish, with short 

 woolly hairs intermixed ; the mystachial bristles stiff, 

 tapering, flattened, and alternately enlarged and 

 contracted ; the longest four inches. The general 

 colour of the fur is yellowish-grey, the upper parts 

 rariegated with dark greyish-brown in irregular 

 patches, and becoming paler on the sides ; the claws 



