HILLS AND aOSSES ACCOUNTS. 711 



iting tlie Pedro Kays, a reef of rocks, lying oft' the south coast 

 of Jamaica. As it appears to be a species uukiiowii to natur- 

 alists, and as the publication in which it was described had 

 only a transient and local interest, 1 transcribe the Memoir at 

 length, adding to it such particulars of the natural history of 

 th.e animal as have since been communicated to me by my 

 frieud. 



" 'The differences which exist in the crania of the Phocidce, 

 and other discrepancies of structure which have been remarked 

 as distinguishing the several genera into which the family is 

 divided, would appear to make the Seal from the Pedro Shoal 

 more allied to the Ph. vltuUna of Linn. {Calocephalus, Fr. Cuv.) 

 than to any of which we have detailed accounts, although very 

 different from all.* The shoulders, legs, and thighs are con- 

 cealed within the body, and the hand is extremely flattened 

 and fln-like. The cranium is large, high, and convex : there 

 are ten molar teeth, and two canines in the upi^er jaw, and the 

 same number in the lower; these, with /owr incisors, above and 

 below, make in all thirty-two teeth. They are five-lohed and 

 conical, and they terminate in a base of extremely rough 

 enamel. The teeth are so disposed that when the mouth is 

 closed there is no interspace above or below them, the points 

 of the upper teeth filling the depressed intervals of the lower 

 ones. Having no external auricle, and ears with foramina so 

 small as to be hardly percei)tible, the species belongs to the 

 Inauriculata of Peron, or the earless division of Seals. The 

 nostrils are narrow fissures, which appear like two slits in the 

 nose, and are frequently and rai)idly closed. The small orifices 

 of the ears are in a similar manner rapidly opened and shut. 

 The lips are full and fleshy, and covered with numerous strong 

 bristles, very flexible, of a black hue with transverse bars of 

 grey. The colour of the body is an intense and uniform black. 

 The hair is short and stiff", and extremely and curiously close. 

 The close bristly covering prevails everywhere except on the 

 palms of the flippers, which are bare. The fore paw has much 

 more the form of a foot than of a hand, the first finger answer- 

 ing to the thumb being the longest. There are nails only on 



* "From Mr. Hill's descriptiou it aiipears to have tlie incisors and nail- 

 less laind feet of Stenorlujnvhus, with the molars of Caloccpluilus. The data 

 are perhaps not sufficient to warrant the formation of a new genus, but I 

 may be permitted to propose the trivial name of Wilkiunus for the species, 

 in honour of George Wilkie, Esq., to whose courtesy I am indebted for the 

 skin of an adult specimen, probably of the same kind, shot by himself." 



