THE SEA-LEOPARD. 29 
Seal * ; but whereas in the latter this is due to excessive fatness, in the former it seems 
to result from the disproportionate weight of the head and shoulders. Nor are these 
capable of being reared high off the ice, as they are in the case of the Sea Elephant, 
whose fore flippers are still of some service as a support to the massive head and 
shoulders. In Stenorhinchus the flippers, both hind and fore, are essentially swimming 
* organs, and to this end are long and powerful, with the first and fifth digits of the 
hind flippers broadly palmated at the tips beyond the nails, though all the flippers, both 
hind and fore, are still completely clothed with hair. The nails are fairly well developed 
in the fore limbs, the first alone being rudimentary, the other four reaching well beyond 
the edge of each digit. In the hind limb the nails of the first and fifth are small and 
rudimentary, those of the second and fourth well formed and reaching to the edge 
of the digits, while that of the third reaches well beyond. 
Stenorhinchus is not so immune from the attacks of the Killer Whales as one 
might infer from its size and strength. It has been reported in one case, a 
young animal it is true, to have been seen very badly torn by wounds of the typical 
character. No. 18 of our own collection has an extensive healed scar upon the crown 
of the head, but of a shape which suggests rather damage done by moving ice floes 
than by a Killer Whale. 
Stenorhinchus is at once to be distinguished from all other seals by its cheek 
teeth, which are not only larger and more powerful than those of any other Antarctic 
form, but shaped each like a trident, with three long pointed cusps standing vertically to 
the long axis of the jaws. The points of the two outer cusps in each tooth are curved 
slightly towards the longer central one, which has itself also a slight curve backwards. 
The typical marking of the skin of this seal has been already detailed in the 
‘Southern Cross’ report, and I have only here to add that the orange tint which 
characterises the great majority of Museum seal skins, not only of this, but of all the 
“Antarctic species, is only less misleading in this case than in any of the other forms, 
since the living Stenorhinchus has in some cases a tawny tint, characterising the 
weathered coat. This, when shed, is replaced by hair of as pure a grey as occurs in 
any other of the seals. The younger animals appear to be of a more silvery grey than 
the older. The orange tint, which is so very marked a feature in the majority of 
Museum seal skins, particularly of the earlier specimens, is, in the case of Lobodon, 
Leptonychotes, and Ommatophoca, wholly misleading, not one of them having anything 
approaching it in life. It results chiefly from the gradual absorption of disorganised 
fat into the hair, fat which, in life, is almost colourless, but becomes dark yellow after 
death and in the course of time. The only tendency to a brown colouration in the 
living Antarctic seals is in the hair of the weathered coats; but this is always of a 
very moderate tone, and never approaches orange yellow; it should rather be described 
as a brownish buff in Lobodon, and a dusky brown in all the others. 
* Gee, however, Voy. of ‘ Scotia,’ op. ctt., p. 222, where Dr. Pirie writes that this seal ‘‘ has been seen to 
come up alongside a, floe on which the penguins were resting, seize one in its huge jaws, and sweep down again 
with its prey.” 
