210 GREENLAND OR HARP SEAL. 



mouth of the Frith of Forth, came under my ob- 

 servation, and, although I then considered it as a 

 different species, I am now persuaded that it be- 

 longed to the present. It was thirty-nine inches in 

 length, the head being 6^, the tail 2^. The incisors 

 conical, compressed ; the canine teeth conical ; the 

 grinders tricuspid. On the fore foot the second 

 toe longest, the first slightly shorter ; the claws 

 large* triangular in their transverse section, and 

 slightly curved. The mystachial bristles flattened 

 and undulated ; the fur of longish flattened hairs, 

 of a yellowish- white colour. There is another 

 specimen in the Museum of the University of Edin- 

 burgh, of nearly the same size, and in all respects 

 similar. 



The skull of this species is less convex above 

 than, that of Phoca vitulina, and straighter in 

 front, the nasal bones being less declinate. The 

 incisors of the upper jaw are compressed, conical, a 

 little recurved, and somewhat distant from each 

 other; the canine teeth conical and curved; the 

 grinders are similar to those of the Common Seal, 

 but more deeply lobed, the posterior lobe sometimes 

 simple, but often presenting a very small lobule ; 

 they are placed at intervals of about half their 

 breadth, and are not oblique, but direct. The four 

 inferior incisors are smaller than the six upper ; but 

 the other teeth resemble those of the upper jaw. 

 The pile differs very little from that of the Common 

 Seal, the bristles being less distinctly undulated, and 

 the hairs somewhat longer. The colour varies ac- 



