Dr. J. E. Gray on a new genus and species of Seal. 201 



considered a new genus. It is the only species of Seal which 

 I believe has yet been found so near the tropic on the African 

 coast. 



Both the specimens in the Museum came from the same cave 

 in the Deserta Grande Island; the larger skin is full-gi-owTi, 

 the other younger. Knight, in his ' Once on a Time/ speaks of 

 the seals as common near Funchal; he observes, "A multitude 

 of seals rush out from that hollow with a sudden cry and plunge 

 into the waves; that point shall be Caniara das Lobos, the cave of 

 seals." (i. 60.) 



Mr. MacAndrew observes, that there is an island called Isle 

 Lobos near the Canaries, on account of the number of seals 

 formerly found there. It is very difficult of access, and Mr. 

 ^lacAndrew could not hear of any existing there now, nor of any 

 remains of them. 



The following are the characters of the genus : — 



Heliophoca. 



Muzzle rather elongate, broad, hairy, with a slight groove be- 

 tween the nostrils ; whiskers small, quite smooth, flat, tapering. 

 Fore-feet short ; fingers gradually shorter to the inner one ; 

 claws 5, flat, truncate. Hind-feet haiiy between the toes ; claws 

 very small ; hair short, adpressed, with very little or no under fur. 

 Skull depressed ; nose rather depressed, rather elongate, longer 

 than the length of the zygomatic arch ; palate angularly notched 

 behind. Cutting teeth ^ lai'ge, notched within, the middle upper 

 much smaller, placed behind the intermediate ones. Canines 

 large, conical, sharp-edged. Grinders |4-^, large, crowded, placed 

 obliquely with regard to the central palatine line, crown large, 

 conical, with several small conic rhombic tubercles. Lower jaw 

 angulated in front below with diverging branches, the lower edge 

 of the branches rounded, simple. 



The feet, palate and teeth resemble those of the genus Callo- 

 cep/uilus [communis), but the grinders are larger and less deeply 

 lobed ; but it has the smooth whiskers of the restricted genus 

 P/ioca {P. barbata). It differs from the latter genus in the de- 

 pressed form of the skull, the large tubercular grinders, and the 

 angular termination to the palate. 



As the other subtropical Seal, Phoca tropicalis (Gray, Cat. 

 Seals B.M. 28), from Jamaica, described from an imperfect skin 

 without a skull, has similar small smooth whiskei-s, it may very 

 pmbably when its skull has been examined belong to this genus, 

 and the genus thus prove a subtropical form of the family. 



