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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XII.] NOVEMBER, 1888. [No. J43. 



ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SEALS.* 



By F. II. BAi.KWii.r,. 



Pinnipeds form a very natural and circumscribed suborder 

 of Mammalia, and some of the facts of their comparative 

 anatomy, habits, and geographical distribution are in favour of 

 the hereditary derivation of different species from the same 

 ancestry — the doctrine of Evolution. 



J. W. Dawson, in his excellent little work, ' The Chain of 

 Life in Geological Time,' written ostensibly to controvert the 

 evolutionary theory, remarks of Seals, " They are more elevated 

 than "Whales in type, appear much later, and without any 

 probable ancestry." The latter part of this sentence I cannot 

 accept. In the first place, notice the close affinities which con- 

 stitute Pinnipeds a natural suborder. They are all distinctly 

 marine in their habits ; with two exceptions, never frequenting 

 rivers or lakes at any distance from the sea. There are two 

 other marine mammalian suborders inhabiting similar localities 

 — the Sirenia (Dugongs and Manatees) and the Cetacca (Whales). 

 From these they are distinguished by the fact that they are all 

 well covered with hair or fur ; have hind as well as fore limbs ; 

 tail small, in no case broadened into the piscine-like member of 

 the other two groups; and possess also the power of erecting 

 and turning the head with a double angle, more or less like 

 the letter Z, in a dog-like way. This, in the eye of common 



* A lecture, delivered at the Plymouth Institution. 

 ZOOLOGIST. — NOV. 1888. 2 I 



