272 TRICHECHID^E. 



on sea-weed, and Sir Everard Home was informed by 

 Mr. Fisher that the stomachs of two which he opened 

 contained Fucus digitalis only. Mr. Lamorid, however, 

 in his "Seasons with the Sea-horses," states that all those 

 which he examined contained the remains of various 

 molluscous, radiated, and annulose animals, although he 

 believed that sea-weeds might occasionally be eaten. 

 Herr Malmgren, who in " Wiegmann's Archiv " for 1864 

 has given by far the best recent account of the habits of 

 the Morse, tells us that it lives almost exclusively on two 

 species of Mollusks, Mya truncata and Saxicava rugosa, 

 which burrow three to seven inches deep in the mud at 

 a depth of ten to fifty fathoms the Walrus digs these 

 up with his tusks, cleverly denudes them of their shells 

 with its tongue and grinders, and swallows them whole. 

 He only found one other animal in the stomach, a. gigantic 

 example of Priapulus caudatus. It is evident that this 

 food can only be procured after the tusks have reached 

 some size, and accordingly the young Walrus is suckled 

 by its mother for nearly two years, by which time its 

 canines have attained a length of three or four inches. 

 Dr. Brown's observations in the Greenland seas are to a 

 similar effect. " As to its being carnivorous," he says, " if 

 further proof is necessary, I have only to add that when- 

 ever one was killed near where a whale's carcase had 

 been set adrift, its stomach was invariably found crammed 

 with the krang, or flesh of the cetacean." 



According to Herr Malmgren, the pairing time is in 

 May and June. The female goes nearly a year with 

 young, and, as already mentioned, suckles her single calf 

 for nearly two years. As she does not pair during this 

 time, it follows that the increase of the species is ex- 

 tremely slow, only one young one being born in four 

 years. 



