602 PHOCA FCETIDA RINGED SEAL,. 



back, the spots silvery- white, of irregular shape, and rarely in 

 the form of rings. * 



Xilsson has distiuguished a black, a white, and a brownish- 

 gray color-variety. The first is described as dark brownish- 

 black, blacker above and more grayish-brown below, marked 

 everywhere with pale streaks, which sometimes form small 

 whitish oval rings ; head and neck with single small whitish 

 spots ; nose and eye-rings uniform black ; limbs uniform 

 brownish-black. The white variety is described as uniform 

 soiled- white, slightly darker on the middle of the back. The 

 brown variety is said to be uniform brownish-gray ; paler below 



Mr. Kumlien states that the new-born young are also "very 

 variable in color ; some are pure white ; others white on the 

 lower parts, but more or less dusky on the back ; others again 

 are fine straw-yellow, with the same dusky variation as in the 

 white ones. The yellow is also variable in the intensity of the 

 shade. Earely some are found that are quite dusky all over^ 

 especially on the head and back ; these are generally small and 

 scrawny. The hair," he adds, "is also quite as variable in 

 texture as in color. In some it is tine, long, and woolly (mostly 

 in the pure white examples) ; in others it is straight or wavy^ 

 while some have short and quite hispid hair." 



There appears to be also a quite wide range of variation in 

 size ; at least the statements of authoi-s indicate that such is 

 the case. It seems probable that in some instances measure- 

 ments given as those of the adult were really taken from ex- 

 amples not full-grown. Xilsson, in 1837, gave the length of the 

 species as about 3 feet, and later (1847) as 3 to 4 feet. Fa- 

 bricius says it rarely exceeds 4J feet in length. Wagner refers 

 to a Labrador specimen as being 4 feet 2 inches long. Capt. J. 

 C. Ross states that the average length, from the nose to the 

 end of the tail, of twenty specimens measured by him, was 55 

 inches, or 4 feet 7 inches, the hind Hipper extending 9 inches 

 beyond the body, thus giving an extreme length of 5 feet 4 

 inches. He gives the average weight of these same specimens 

 as 199 pounds, and the circumference immediately behind the 

 fore flippers as 49.7 inches, t Dr. Rink, however, gives the 

 average weight of seven specimens, "perhaps somewhat below 

 the middle size," as only 84 pounds. | Lilljeborg and Malm- 

 gren record much larger dimensions. The former gives the 



* Bull. Soc. Imp. ties Nat. de Moscou, 1839, pp. 189, 191. 

 t Ross's Second Voyage, App., p. xx. 

 t Danish Greenland, etc., p. 123. 



