164 OCEAN SEAL. 



lids ; it has a membrana nictitans. The aperture 

 of the ear is ovate, surrounded with puckered skin, 

 so as to shut. The neck is robust, formed like a 

 truncated cone, though not very distinct. The 

 nails are black. The extreme toes on the hind feet 

 are the largest, the middle one is the shortest, so 

 that the foot is crescent-shaped. There are but 

 two mammae, and the dam has but one at a birth. 



The colour of the head is an obscure chestnut, 

 somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the body 

 is a dull white, much the clearest on the belly* A 

 great marking occurs across the shoulders, of the 

 same colour with the head, which forks downwards 

 on either side, and neany meets again on the pos- 

 terior part of the abdomen ; it is somewhat in the 

 form of a half-moon, and is more or less surrounded 

 with irregular spots of the same colour : this pre- 

 cise colouring is always present. The young ones are, 

 during the first year, of a clear ash colour on the 

 back, lighter below, and are everywhere spotted 

 with a few black spots of a round and oblong 

 form. In the second year the ash colour becomes 

 somewhat whiter ; the spots become larger and 

 more distinct, and hence they are called spotted. 

 This colour the females preserve unchanged ; but 

 the males, as they advance in age, undergo a fur- 

 ther change as stated above, and are hence named 

 winged Seals. 



These Seals love the colder parts of the sea ; 

 hence they only appear along the ice in the White 

 Sea; and having, about the end of April, given 



