FAMILY PHOCIDAE. 
55 
authority of Indian traders, that seals have heretofore been seen on the borders of the Lake, 
though the circumstance is one of rare occurrence. A species of seal was captured, some 
years since, near Lynn, Massachusetts, which is mentioned in the newspapers as being beau¬ 
tifully spotted, especially on the under side, and referred to the P. vitulina. In August, 
1824, a seal was exhibited alive in New-York, which had been taken in a seine in the Che¬ 
sapeake, near Elkton, Maryland. Dr. Mitchill, who saw it, supposed it to be the P. vitulina; 
although, as he states in a newspaper paragraph, “ in the written account, (alluding to a 
“description he had drawn up in 1818 of a seal taken near Amboy,) there is no note 
“ of the natural mark in the breast of the present creature, nor of more than five claws on 
“ the fore feet.” What this natural mark could have been, or what is meant by more than 
five claws, must be left to conjecture, or to await the examination of another individual. 
GENUS STEMMATOPUS. F. Cuvier. 
Form and habits of the preceding, but the head is furnished with a dilatable hood. Teeth 
30 ; four incisors above, and two beneath. 
Under the barbarous name of Mirounga, Mr. Gray has proposed to group together several 
species of this family, which are characterized by “ the nose elongated into a trunk, and the 
“ teeth with simple roots.” In the present, state of our knowledge of this family, we prefer 
the name and characters noted above. 
THE HOODED SEAL. 
Stemmatopus cristatus. 
PLATE XV. FIG. I. 
Phocn cristata. Gmelin. 
Hooded Seal. Penn. Arct. Zool. Vol. I, p. 162. 
P. cristata. De Kay, Ann. Lyc. New-York, Vol. I, p. 94, pi. 7. King & Ludlow, ib. p. 99. Harlan, Fauna, p. 106. 
Godman, Am. Nat. Hist. Vol. I, p. 336, figure. 
The Crested Seal. Hamilton, Nat. Hist. Amphibious Carnivora, p. 197, pi. 14. 
Characteristics. Grey, varied with brown. Nasal sac bright brown. Feet blackish brown. 
Length 6-7 feet. 
Description. Body robust, cylindrical, tapering gradually to the tail, and covered with 
flattened decumbent hairs. Head small in proportion to the body, with a moveable muscular 
bag on its summit, extending from the muzzle to about five inches behind the eyes, and in 
certain positions nearly covering the. internal canthi. This sac is twelve inches long, and 
when fully distended, nine inches high, covered with short hairs, and with slight transverse 
wrinkles. The nostrils are round, each two inches in diameter, and pierced in the anterior 
part of this hood. When the hood or nasal sac is not inflated, the septum nasi can be dis¬ 
tinctly felt, elevated into a ridge about six inches high. Eyes large, distant 6‘5 from the 
