216 CABNIVORA PINNIPEDIA. 



and the body is marked with whitish spots. The skins 

 are known to commerce as "Bluebacks." They are chiefly 

 used for shoe trimmings, muffs, gloves, military caps and 

 clothing, but they are not nearly so abundant as the 

 Greenland Seal skins. 



The Bearded Seal, probably the largest of all northern 

 True Seals, is circumpolar in distribution ; never being 

 found south of Labrador on the American, or of the North 

 Sea on the European side of the Atlantic. It is boreal 

 and solitary in its habits, nowhere abundant, and produces 

 its young in the fall of the year. It can be distinguished 

 from other species of the family, by the beard from which 

 it derives its name, its superior size, its broad muzzle and 

 convex forehead, as well as its small weak teeth. It dif- 

 fers from all other Seals in that the third or middle digit 

 of the front nipper is longer than the rest, while in the 

 other species the digits of the front nippers decrease in 

 length from the first, or first and second, to the last. 



Like the floe-rat, the Bearded Seal makes blow holes in 

 the ice; and a ditsinguishing peculiarity is its habit of 

 turning a complete somersault w r hen about to dive. Its 

 color is a shade of grey, showing individual variations in 

 tint but always darker on the back than elsewhere. This 

 Seal is of no commercial importance. 



The Monk Seal, found in the Mediterranean and Black 

 Seas, and the West Indian Seal are the only two species 

 of the Phocidae that inhabit the warmer seas. They are 

 neither of commercial value, nor of special interest other- 

 wise. The full-grown males, of either species, will meas- 

 ure from seven to eight feet in length. 



