206 MITRED SEAL. 



quently, of covering the head more or less, as far 

 perhaps at the eyes, as is said of the Capuchin 

 Seal.'"* 



The dimensions, the habits, and even the locality 

 of this singular species, seem to be nearly unknown ; 

 the only gleanings we have detected being the fol- 

 lowing . " One species," says Crantz, " has a thick 

 folded skin upon its forehead, which it can dra / 

 down over its eyes, like a cap, to defend them against 

 the storms, waves, stones, and sand ; it has a short, 

 thick, black wool under its white hair, which gives 

 it a beautiful grey colour. !> f Again, " In that sub- 

 genus," says Mr Swainson, " named Mirounga by Mr 

 Grey, J one species has the pow r er of bringing forward 

 a fold of skin, placed on the forehead in such a way 

 as to cover the eyes when the animal is threatened." 

 And, once more, in the words of Lesson, " The Fur 

 Seal of Patagonia has a bump behind its head."U 



* Journal de Physique, t. xci. p. 289. 



t Hist, of Greenland, vol. i. 125. 



I Are not sub-genera sometimes made too precipitately ? 

 Miouroung is a name given by the aborigines of N. Holland to 

 the Proboscis Seal ; and, accordingly, it is made a synonym of 

 that animal by Desmarest, arid, we believe, Peron. ' The fold 

 of the skin on the forehead, so as to cover the eyes," however 

 applicable to the Mitrata* can never, with any propriety, be ap- 

 plied to the Miouroung of Desmarest ; and why interfere with his 

 nomenclature ? 



Classif. of Quadr. p. 118. 



I Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. t. xi. p. 33. 



