10 SEALS. 



one smaller, with a single large root, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th nearly 

 equal, and the 5th smaller and more compressed; the 2nd and 

 3rd have the root only divided at the base, the 4th and 5th have 

 the roots divided nearly to the crown, and diverging; the first' 

 under is smallest and single-rooted, the rest are all similar, 2- 

 rooted, the 3rd being the largest, and the 5th most compressed 

 in the crown ; the symphysis of the lower jaw is very long. 



The teeth of the younger animals have a rather broader crown, 

 with rather shorter tubercles, a rugose surface with some smaller 

 tubercles on the inner side, near the base of the hinder lobes, 

 but separated from them by a groove. 



Body tapering behind. The fore limbs moderate, rather elon- 

 gate, triangular, hairy above and below : toes 5, tapering, with 

 a narrow, thick, hairy web between them; claws 5, elongate, 

 acute, subequal : the hind limbs large, broad, triangular, hairy 

 above and below ; the outer toes on each side of the foot very 

 large, broad, rounded at the end, the three middle ones smaller, 

 narrow, tapering, with a thick hairy web between them, the 

 central one smaller and shorter, all clawless : tail short, conical, 

 depressed. 



Fur close- set, rather rigid, directed backwards, soft at the end ; 

 the hairs flat at the base, tapering to a fine point, without any 

 under-fur at the roots. 



Inhab. Antarctic Ocean. 



Lobodon, Gray, Zool. Erebus fy Terror, Mamm. 

 Phoca, sp. Homb. Sf Jacq. Voy. Pole Sud (no description). 

 Stenorhynchus, part., Owen, Ann. fy Mag. N. H. 1843, 331. 

 Halichcerus, sp. T. Peale. 



This genus is more nearly allied to Stenorhynchus than to 

 Phoca, to which the French surgeons have referred it, but still 

 it differs so much from that genus in the conformation of the 

 skull and the lobing and rooting of the teeth, that it can scarcely 

 be left in it : but the latter peculiarity appears to have escaped 

 Mr. Owen's research, for in his generic character of Stenorhyn- 

 chus he says, " Anterior molars with one root, the rest with two 

 roots," while in this genus the three front upper molars are 

 single-rooted, a character by which this genus differs from all 

 the others in the family. 



1. LOBODON CARCINOPHAGA. CRAB-EATING SEAL. 



Head, back, hind feet and upper part of the tail pale olive ; 

 fore leet, side of the face, body and tail beneath yellowish white, 

 the hinder part of sides of the body, the base of the hind fins 

 yellow-spotted, spots unequal, often ' confluent : whiskers white, 

 the upper ones smaller, dusky. 



