Maiiuiialia. 7 



each species. Of special novelty is the description of the appear- 

 ance and of the strange and unexpected vocal powers of Ommatoplioca. 

 As regards food, it would seem that small Crustaceans and other 

 Invertebrates are so abundant, that the life of all, with the single 

 exception, probably, of the Leopard-Seal, consists, except in the 

 breeding season, of a monotonous alternation of heavy gorging and 

 long sleeps during the digestion of a meal which needs no trouble to 

 procure. 



Dr. Eacovitza has something to say about the temperature of the 

 Seals, which, as in the case of the Penguins, he found to be 

 remarkably low. In the case of the Seals it did not exceed 37°. So 

 efficacious is the protection against the cold afforded by the thick 

 layer of blubber which underlies the skin in these animals, that the 

 carcase of a Seal, exposed to a temperature of 20°, was still warm 

 inside, twenty-four hours after death. 



It is obvious that we are still in sore need of careful and 

 detailed studies of the life-history of each species, of their habits 

 during the breeding season ; and, above all, of the circumstances 

 which admit the existence side by side of four species each distinct 

 enough to form a separate genus, and whose very dentition differs 

 in a highly remarkable degree. Such marked diversity of teeth and 

 skull cannot be meaningless ; yet (except in the case of Ogmorliiims) 

 no observer has as yet laid special stress upon any corresponding 

 divergences of habits or life-history. 



OwiuG: to the unfortunate death of Mr. Hanson and the loss of 

 his zoological notes, the ' Southern Cross ' Expedition has made no 

 striking addition to our knowledge of the habits and life-history of 

 the Antarctic Phocidae. No MS. of any sort dealing with this 

 subject has been placed in my hands, but Mr. Borchgrevink 

 occasionally mentions Seals in a paper read before the Geographical 

 Society.^ These notes, wherever they deal with a particular species, 

 are alluded to under the heading of that species. The more im- 

 portant entries tell us that Seals were scarce in the pack, increasing 

 in numbers, however, as the ship proceeded southwards, when the 

 number of Seals basking together increased considerably, and in the 

 vicinity of Coulman Island, Cape Constance, and in Lady Newnes 

 Bay, there were as many as three hundred Weddell's Seals together. 

 In the vicinity of Cape Adare they were to be found nearly all the 

 winter, either on the ice near their blow-holes, or in the water at 

 these holes, which they managed to keep open in Eobertson Bay 



' ' The ' Southern Crosa ' Expedition to the Antarctic, 1S99-1900.' G'eof/nqMcal 

 Journal, October, lUOO, pp. 381-±14. 



