yo SoiitJicni Cross. 



muzzle. The former was covered witli fine and silky hairs, the hitter 

 tarried numerou.s fine Idaek bristles. 



Mr. i'.crnacehi (ji. oIH) writes as follows: "Weddell's Seal 

 {Lrploniichotoi v'eihhlH) is found in great numbers along the coasts 

 of the Antnretic lands, but rarely in the pack-ice. As many as two 

 jjundrt'd of these Seals were seen together by the ' Southern Cross' 

 Kxpodition, even at the farthest point south reached by the ship. 

 In the depths of winter it is still to be found near open pools of 

 water around large icebergs, which are kept open by the movements 

 of the bergs. In appearance it is the most rounded of all the 

 Antarctic Seals, with a bullet-like head, and large and prominent 

 dark-brown eyes, which appear bloodshot and protruding, though 

 always full of expression and pathos. It is slow, quiet, and very 

 inoffensive. The staple food of this Seal is crustaceous matter and 

 small fish. In colour the back and sides are dark grey, shading off 

 into a tawny orange colour underneath. It was found breeding in 

 consiilerable numbers in Robertson Bay during the spring of 1899, 

 the first young aj)pearing early in September. 



In the latter month Mr. Bernacchi says that a common red 

 crustacean and a small tish like an anchovy, form the principal food 

 of the species, and on February 17th Mr. Hanson notes that the 

 stomach ofaLcptoiii/chotcsv^'dS quite full of a small fish like a whiting 

 {infra, p. 93). 



Perhaps the most characteristic point in the colour of the skin 

 of this Seal is the absence of vivid black amongst its many splashes 

 and spots of grey. The back and sides are dark grey, darker, as 

 usual, mid-dorsally, and shading off into a tawny-orange colour under- 

 neath, which is streaked in a very liberal fashion from head to tail 

 with grey of a varying depth, but not with black. Again, on the 

 upper i)arts, where the ground colour is dark grey, shading off down 

 the sides into tawny orange, there are also longitudinal streaks and 

 8pl;i8he.s of i»ale tawny colour, often very pale, but none of black as are 

 found in the Of/morhinns. There is considerable difference apparently 

 in the ruddine.ss of the under parts of the two Leopard-Seals— the 

 True and the False. In Ogmorhinus the colour is more fulvous; 

 whcreius in Wcddell's Seal the tawny colour exhibits almost a greenish 

 lin;;e by the free admixture of grey markings of varied intensity. 



Mr. liorchgrevink {tx. p. 236) mentions Weddell's Seal as the 

 •Mwat represented" species in the pack.^ which, however, was not 

 the case ; l)Ut he does not seem to be well acquainted with the Seals 



• Mr. lk;rnacclii (p. 73) Kays that not one Weddell's Seal was luei wiih iu the 



