WEDDELL 1 S SEAL CRAB-EATING SEAL. 



243 



TEETH OF THE EA LEOPARD. 



and seaweeds. Captain Musgrave, in his forced residence on the Aucklands, already referred to, 



alludes to this animal as the Black Seal, and describes a fight between one and a Sea Lion (Otaria); 



the flesh, he says, is rank. So far as his observations 



go, they remain at these islands pretty nearly all the year 



round, but others think that they occasionally migrate, 



or, at least, at certain seasons less frequently approach the 



land. The skull is remarkably elongated; the double- rooted 



molar teeth are compressed and serrate, or have a three- 



lobed crown, the middle being the longest. This animal 



has but four incisors above and four below, and the canines 



are of moderate dimensions. The nails on the hind feet 



are almost absent. 



WEDDELL'S SEAL.* A couple of stuffed specimens 

 and a few skulls of this Seal in the British Museum, and 

 a stuffed specimen in Edinburgh, are the sole material 

 on which this species is founded. Dr. R. Hamilton, 



in the "Naturalist's Library," described the latter as the Leopard Seal (Phoca leopardina, 

 Jameson). Captain Weddell had brought it from the Southern Orkneys, and, according to him, 

 durino 1 life the animal is pale greyish above, yellowish beneath, and the back spotted with pale 

 white. Dr. Gray mentions the London male specimen as fulvous, with a blackish-grey line down 

 the back, the female and young corresponding to Captain Weddell's description. The distinction 

 between this and the last species is barely appreciable from their external coat, such differences as exist 

 being in the skull. Weddell's Seal, or, as Gray names it, the False Sea Leopard (Leptonyx Weddellii), 

 has a relatively shorter and broader skull, fuller in the brain-pan, largish orbits, and a weak lower jaw. 

 The molars are not tri-cusped ; the front one in each jaw is single-rooted, and the rest double-rooted. 

 The Antarctic Expedition brought home skulls, and skins and skulls were afterwards obtained by 

 Captain Fitzroy, R.N., from the River Santa Cruz, Patagonia. Neither they nor Weddell give us 

 any information respecting the life-habits of this animal. It will thus be seen that its geographical 

 area, and especially its geographical relations towards the previous species, are at present uncertain. 

 On account of the peculiarities of cranium and dentition, Gray forms it into a separate gemis. 



THE CRAB-EATING SEAL, OR SAW-TOOTH STERRINCK OF OwEN.t The interest in this creature lies 

 probably not so much in the nature of its food as in the greater saw-like character of its molars, which 

 strongly resemble those of the fossil Zeuglodon, an animal of the Whale tribe. The Crab-eating Seal 

 inhabits an undefined area of the Antarctic Seas. Above it is of a nearly uniform olive colour, below 

 and the sides of the face yellowish-white, and there are a few often confluent spots of a light colour on 

 the flanks. The five-toed fore feet, whose wrist is said to be very short, are clawed, but the hind ones are 

 clawless. In number, the teeth agree with the Sea Leopard's ; though the first, second, and third front 

 upper and the first front lower molars are single-rooted, the rest double-rooted. Moreover, nearly all 

 the molar teeth have two or three cusps behind the middle strong conical lobe, while in front there is 

 usually only a single small conical elevation. Thus the hinder border of these molars is considerably 

 more saw-like than in the Sea Leopard. It differs also from the latter both in the lower jaw and upper 

 parts of the cranium, but more particularly in the nasal and facial regions. Little is known with 

 regard to its life-history. 



The last three Seals some have considered under three distinct generic names, for reasons already 

 given. If importance be attached to the dentition, this separation is allowable ; but on the other 

 hand there are considerable resemblances which others regard as only of specific weight. The 

 generic term Stenorhynchus, first used by F. Cuvier in 1824 for the so-called Sea Leopard, and which 

 has been at times indiscriminately applied by different naturalists to all three animals with multi- 

 serrate crowned teeth, but here partially restricted to the first two, is a name well known and stili 

 applicable to one or other. Nevertheless, Lamarck, in 1819, had designated a genus of Crabs 



Stenorhynch'us (Leptonyx) Weddellii. 



t Lobodon carcinophaga. 



