CARNARIA. lOJ 



to render them good swimmers; and all the details of their anatomy con- 

 firm these first indicia. 



We have as yet distinguished two genera only, Phoca and Trichechus. 



PiiocA, Lin. 



Seals have six or four incisors above, four or two below, pointed canini 

 and grinders to the number of twenty, twenty-two, or twenty-four, all 

 trenchant or conical, and without any tuberculous part whatever ; five toes 

 to all the feet, the anterior ones regularly decreasing in length from the 

 thumb to the little toe, while in the hinder feet the thumb and the little 

 toe are the longest, and the intermediate ones the shortest. The fore feet 

 are enveloped in the skin of the body as far as the tarsus, the hinder ones 

 almost to the heel. Between the latter is a short tail. The head of a 

 seal bears a resemblance to that of a dog, whose intelligence and soft ex- 

 pressive look it also possesses. It is easily tamed, and soon becomes at- 

 tached to its keeper, or those who feed it. The tongue is smooth, and 

 sloped at the end, the stomach simple, cgecum short, and tlie intestinal 

 canal long, and tolerably regular. These animals live on fish ; always eat 

 in the water, and close their nostrils when they dive by a kind of valve. 

 As they remain a long time under water, it was supposed that the foramen 

 ovale remained open, as in the human foetus — but it is not so : there is, 

 however, a large venous sinus in the liver, which must assist them in 

 diving, by rendering respiration less necessary to the motion of the blood. 

 Their blood is very abundant and very black. 



Phoca, properly so called, or, without external ears. 



The true Phocae have pointed incisors ; all the toes enjoy a certain de- 

 gree of motion, and are terminated by pointed nails planted on the edge 

 of the membrane, which unites them. 



They are subdivided from the number of their incisors. The Caloce- 

 PHALA, Fr. Cuv., have six above and four below; such is the 



Phoca vitulina, L.; Buff. XIII. xlv., and Supp. VI. xlvi; Ph. 

 littorea, Thienem. pi. vi. (The Common Seal). From three to five 

 feet in length; of a yellowish grey, more or less shaded and spotted 

 with brown, according to its age ; sometimes brownish, with small 

 yellow spots. Wlien very old it becomes whitish. Common on the 

 coast of Europe in great herds. It is also found far to the north ; 

 we are even assured that it is this species which inhabits the Caspian 

 sea, and the great fresh water lakes of Russia and Siberia, but this 

 assertion does not appear to be founded on an exact comparison. In 

 fact, the European seas contain several Phocae, which have long been 

 confounded, some of which are perhaps mere varieties of the others. 

 Thus, some of them have the back covered with small clouded, 

 confluent, browaiish spots, on a yellowish ground — Ph. hispida, 

 Schreb. 8G*. These are the most common ones of the northern 

 ocean. In others again the ground is dark, traversed with undulat- 



I suspect we should refer to it the Ph. scopulicola, Thieuem, pi. v. 



