1868] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 417 



ferent colours ; this, however, has long been known to the Seal- 

 hunters. Male. — The length of the male Saddleback rarely reaches 

 feet, and the most common length is 5 feet ; while the female in 

 general rarely attains that length. The colour of the male is of a 

 tawny grey, of a lighter or darker shade in different individuals, on 

 a slightly straw-coloured or tawny-yellowish ground, having some- 

 times a tendency to a reddish-brown tint, which latter colour is 

 often seen in both males and females, but especially iu the latter, in 

 oval spots on the dorsal aspect. The pectoral and abdominal 

 regions have a dingy or tarnished silvery hue, and are not white as 

 generally described. But the chief characteristic, at least that 

 which has attracted the most notice, so much as to have been 

 the reason for giving it several names, from the peculiar appearance 

 it was thought to present {e.g. " harp " Seal, "saddleback," &c.), 

 is the dark marking or band on its dorsal and lateral aspects. This 

 "saddle-shaped" band commences at the root of the neck poste- 

 riorly, and curves downwards and backwards at each side superior to 

 the anterior flippers*, reaches downwards to the abdominal region, 

 whence it curves backwards anteriorly to the posterior flippers, where 

 it gradually disappears, reaching further in some individuals than 

 in others. In some this band is broader than in others and more 

 clearly impressed, while iu many the markings only present an ap- 

 proximation, in the form of an aggregation of spots more or less 

 isolated. The grey colour verges into a dark hue, almost a black 

 tint, on the muzzle and flippers ; but I have never seen it white on 

 the forehead as mentioned by Fabricius. The muzzle is more pro- 

 minent than in any other northern Seal. 



Female. — The female is very different in appearance from the 

 male : she is not nearly so large, rarely reaching 5 feet in length ; 

 and when fully mature her colour is a dull white or yellowish straw- 

 colour, of a tawny hue on the back, but similar to the male on the 

 pectoral and abdominal regions, only perhaps somewhat lighter. In 

 some females I have seen the colour totally different ; it presented 

 a bluish or dark grey appearance on the back, with peculiar 

 oval markings of a dark colour apparently impressed on a yellowish 

 or reddish-brown ground. These spots are more or less numerous 

 in different individuals. Some Seal-hunters are inclined to think 

 this is a different species of Seal from the Saddleback, because the 

 appearance of the skin is often so very different and so extremely 

 beautiful when taken out of the water ; yet as the females are 

 always found among the immense flocks of the Saddleback, and as 

 hardly two of the latter females are alike, but varying in all stages 

 to the mature female, and on account of there being no males to 

 mate with them, I am inclined to believe with Dr. Wallace that 

 these are only younger female Saddlebacks, The muzzle and 

 flippers of the female present the same dark-chestnut appearance 

 as in the male. 



Procreation and changes of coats in the young. — I have already 



* I use this very convenient sealers' vernacular term to express the " paws," 

 " hands," &c. of systematic authors. 



