SEAL-EMBRYOS. 5 
that the young pass at once into the water. In another animal of the same species, 
born in the Zoological Gardens in London, the hair was got rid of immediately after birth, 
and with it the young animal formed a sort of nest upon which it lay for some hours. 
The foetal hair of Leptonychotes seems to approach in quality more nearly to that 
of Halicherus, as described by Turner, rather than to that of Phoca. The young of 
Halicherus do not change their first hair until about three weeks after birth, and then, 
but not till then, do they take to the water. Dr. Wilson (loc. cit.) gives some 
interesting particulars in this connection with regard to the habits of the young of 
Weddell’s Seal. He says that after birth the young “lay on the ice at the mouth of 
the blow-holes which the parents kept open for the purpose of procuring food. The 
young were born in a thick and woolly coat of dull ochre-grey and black showing 
something of the markings which would appear later on in the adult. The coat began 
to drop off at the end of fourteen days, and by the end of a month the moult had 
finished. The young seal, attired now in a very handsome coat of glossy black and 
silver hair, could for the first time enter the water and take a share in finding its own 
food. It is suckled for a variable time on the ice. It takes about two years to arrive 
at maturity and the size increases considerably for many years.” 
Wright has suggested that the character of the foetal hair on those seals which 
take to the water immediately after birth may present certain differences from the 
hair of those animals which enter the water only after some interval of time. The 
facts just stated appear to confirm the truth of this suggestion. And further, 
Leptonychotes, both in habit and in the quality of the first developed hair, more 
closely resembles Halichaerus than Phoca. 
The vibrisse on the upper lip are arranged in four rows. They are distinctly 
visible in embryos of 98 mm. in length (No. 6), so that by the time the body hairs 
begin to appear the animal has whiskers of considerable length. The tufts of long 
hairs which are attached a little distance above the inner angle of the eye do not 
make their appearance until later, when the animal has attained a size of 158 mm. 
(No. 20). 
Eyes, nose, and ears.—The eyelids were firmly adherent to one another along their 
edges even in the oldest foetus. Whether they remain closed until the time of birth, 
or even after, as in some other carnivores, I am unable to say. In the foetus of a Grey 
Seal (Halicherus grypus), “about three months from the completion of its term of 
intra-uterine life,’ described by Turner, the palpebral fissure was not closed. As 
already stated, there is a narrow line of dark pigment along the margin of either lid 
from quite an early age. The pupils are circular. 
The external nares are, throughout the series, in the form of crescentic slits, the 
concave margin being directed outwards, and are covered by a valvular fold of skin. 
The nares are placed upon the anterior surface of the snout, and look forwards. Not 
even in the oldest specimen have they assumed the dorsal position characteristic of the 
Phocidz. In the latest stage the nose is covered with short hairs, and there is no 
