1868. J MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 437 



sleep ill an unguarded manner, while tlie latter states that they delight 

 in the high seas, visiting the land in April, May, and June. This 

 appears contradictory and confusing ; but in i-eality both authors are 

 right, though not in an exclusive sense. The hood appears to be an 

 organ of defence from any stunning blow on the nose, the most vul- 

 nerable place in a Seal. It only inflates this " bladder " when irri- 

 tated. The sealers look upon it as a reservoir of air when under the 

 water*. The story which Fabricius relates about its " shedding tears 

 abundantly " when surprised by the hunter is, I suspect, only an 

 Eskimo tale of wonder. I could find no one credulous enough to 

 believe it ; nor during the whole time I passed among the seal- 

 hunters of the far north did I find that any one esteemed my cre- 

 dulity great enough to venture any such story on me. 



It is affirmed, curiously enough, that the Bladdernose and the 

 Saddleback are rarely or ever found together ; they are said to 

 disagree. At all events, the latter is generally found on the inside 

 of the pack, while the former is on the outside. The latter is 

 also much more common than the Bladdernose. 



Procreation and young. — At first the young Bladdernose is pure 

 white : during the first year, as it grows older and increases in 

 size, a grey tinge appears ; and gradually it assumes a deeper and 

 deeper hue of the same colour. I cannot confirm the remarks of 

 Otho Fabricius, that during the second year (when they are called 

 KakortaJc) they are snow-white, with a straight line of brown on their 

 backs. Neither I nor any other Seal-hunter with whom I have 

 talked ever saw such a Seal in the Greenland sea ; and it appears to 

 be equally unknown in Greenland. Mr. Tegner, who passed several 

 years in a South-Greenland settlement, subsisting almost entirely 

 by the catching of this Seal, informs me that he never heard of such 

 an animal. It is therefore just possible that Fabricius may have been 

 mistaken, though the characteristic marks mentioned are so promi- 

 nent that it is hardly probable that he could have been in error. In 

 fact, the majority of the " Bladdernoses " which I have seen were 

 about two or three years old, and appeared, by a slow and gradual 

 change, becoming similar to the old and mature Seals, by turning 

 darker and darker in their colours, and assuming the roundish oval 

 markings, while at the same time they were increasing in size. Tliis 

 species seems to produce its young earlier than P. groenlandicus. 



Geographical distribution and migrations. — The Bladdernose is 

 found all over the Greenland seas, from Iceland to Greenland and 

 Spitzbergen, but chiefly in the more southern parts. The first Seals 

 which we saw and killed on the making of the ice early in March 

 1861, were chiefly young "bladders" which had not yet got the 

 hood-like appendage. It even finds its way to the temperate shores 



* Mr. J. Walker, Master of the screw-steamer ' Wildfire,' and one of the most 

 intelligent of the whaling captains, assured me (June 1861), from his own obser- 

 vation, that this Seal lies frequently on the top of elevated pieces of ice, and that 

 the use of this hood, or " bladder," appears to he to raise it up with sufficient 

 momentum to the surface (by filling it with air) so as to spring again on to 

 the ice. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1868, No. XXIX. 



