252 



CARNIVORA. 

 PJNNIPEDIA. 



PHOCIU.E. 



PEOCIBjE. 



GREENLAND OR HARP SEAL. 



Phoca yrocnlandica (Fabricius). 



Specific Character. — Adult, ta^vny-grey or yellowish- wliite, sometimes 

 sijotted ; male with a 'large blackish cresccntic patch on its back and sides. 

 Skull with the hinder edge of the bony palate entire, nearly straight ; 

 branches of lower jaw sub-parallel in front. 



Phoca grmnlandica, Fabricius, Miiller's Prod. Zool. Dan. p. viii. (1776). 



Caloccx:)halus grcenlandica, F. Cuvier, Diet. Sc. Nat. XXXIX. 545 (1826). 

 Pagopliilas grcenlamUca, J. E. Gray, Cat. Phoc. Brit. Mus. 25. 



The Greenland or Harp Seal is I'eadily distinguishable, 

 in the case of the adult male, by its peculiar markings. 

 More constant characters, however, will be found in the 

 structure of the skull, in which the posterior edge of 

 the bony palate is not notched, but nearly straight, while 

 the branches of the lower jaw are sub-parallel in front, 

 instead of divei'ging at once, as in the other members of 

 the genus. 



It is not without considerable doubt that we retain the 



