LITTLE SEAL. 



Phoca Pusilla. P. capite Itgvt suiauriculato, corpore fusco. Lin. 



Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 65. 



Subauriculated dusky Seal, with smooth head. 

 Le petit Phoque. Buff. 13. /. 333. pi. 53. 

 Little Seal. Pennant Quadr.p. 280. 



IN this species the hair is said to be soft, 

 smooth, and longer than in the Common Seal : 

 the colour on the head and back dusky: beneath 

 brownish: the length two feet four inches: the 

 four middle cutting-teeth of the upper jaw are bi- 

 ficated : the two middle of the lower slightly tri- 

 furcated: the ears very small: the webs of the 

 feet extend very far beyond the toes and nails. 

 This animal is figured in Buffon's Natural History, 

 under the title of Le petit Phoque, and the speci- 

 men is said to have been brought from India, but 

 Mr. Pennant imagines this to be an erroneous 

 idea, arising from some misinformation, since, 

 from the authority of Dampier, as well as of mo- 

 dern voyagers to the East Indies, it should seem 

 that no seals are observed in that ocean. 



