308 THE PEDRO SHOAL. 



legs, and thighs, are concealed within the body, and 

 the hand is extremely flattened and fin-like. The 

 cranium is large, high, and convex : — there are ten 

 molar teeth, and two canines in the upper jaw, and 

 the same number in the lower ; these, with four 

 incisors, above and below, make in all thirty two 

 teeth. The molars are five-lohed, and conical ; and 

 they terminate in a base of extremely rough enamel. 

 The teeth are so disposed, that when the mouth is 

 closed, there is no interspace above or below them, 

 the points of the upper teeth filling the depressed 

 intervals of the lower ones. Having no external 

 auricles, and ears with foramina so small as to be 

 hardly perceptible, the species belongs to the Inau- 

 riculata of Peron, or the earless division of Seals. 

 The nostrils are narrow fissures, which appear like 

 two slits in the nose, and are frequently and rapidly 

 opened. The small orifices of the ears are in a 

 similar manner rapidly opened and shut. The lips 

 are full and fleshy, and covered with numerous strong 

 bristles, very flexible, of a black hue with transverse 

 bars of grey. The colour of the body is an intense 

 and uniform black. The hair is short and stifi", and 

 extremely and curiously close. This close bristly 

 covering prevails every where except on the palms 

 of the flippers, which are bare. The fore paw has 

 much more the form of a foot than of a hand, the 

 first finger, answering to the thumb, being the longest. 



genus, but I may be permitted to propose the trivial name of Wil- 

 kianus for the species, in honour of George Wilkie, Esq., to whose 

 courtesy I am indebted for the skin of an adult specimen probably of 

 the same kind, shot by himself. 



