84 



MAMMALIA— ORDER IV. -CARNIVORA. 



leaves an ugly wound, the sharp canines tearing out deep gutters in the skin 

 and furrows in the blubber, or shredding the flippers into ribbon-strips. The 

 bulls generally approach each other -with comically averted heads, just as 

 though they vi'ere ashamed of the rumpus which they are determined to 

 precipitate. When they get near enough to reach one another, they enter 

 upon the repetition of many feints or passes before either the one or tlie 

 other fcikes the initiative by gripping. The heads are darted out and back 

 as quick as a flash ; their hoarse roaring and shrill piping whistle never ceases, 

 while their fat bodies writhe and swell with exertion and rage ; furious lights 

 gleam in their eyes ; their hair flies ofi' into the air, and their blood streams 

 down. All this combined makes a picture so fierce and so strange that, from 

 its unexpected position and its novelty, this is one of the most extraordinary 

 brutal contests man can witness." 



The walrus or morse {Trichechus rosmarns) of the polar seas, although 

 differing remarkably in its dentition from both, presents in many respects a 

 connecting link between the preceding and following families. 

 It agrees, for instance, with the Otariidce in having the hind- 

 flippers turned forwards beneath the body when on land, 

 but resembles the Phocidce in having lost all external traces 

 of ears. As regards the dentition, the upper canines are 

 developed into enormous tusks, projecting far below the lower jaw, but the 

 whole of the other teeth are small, simple, and single-rooted, the molars 



having rounded, flattened 



The Walrus. - 

 Family 



Trichechida:. 



Fig. 52. — "WALRas (Trichechus rosmarus.) ' 



crowns. The walrus is one of 

 the heaviest and most bulky 

 of all seals, old males not un- 

 frequently measuring from 10 

 to 11 feet in length, while 

 much larger examples are on 

 record. In form the head is 

 round, with rather small eyes, 

 and the short, broad muzzle 

 furnished with a tuft of stifi' 

 bristles on each side. The hair 

 of the rest of the body is short 

 and closely pressed to the skin, 

 its general colour being yellow- 

 ish. The tail is rudimental ; in the front-flippers the toes are nearly 

 equal in length, and furnished with small, flat nails, but in the hind- 

 pair the na^ls of the three middle digits are large, and those of the two mar- 

 ginal ones minute. There is some difference of opinion as to whether the 

 walruses of the Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans belong to the same or to 

 distinct species, but, in any case, the difference between them is extremely 

 slight. Walruses are social animals, collecting on the ice-fields in herds of 

 considerable size, and being often found on detached ice-floes. The females 

 produce one, or occasionally two calves in the spring or early summer, for 

 which they display the most marked afi'ection. Their food consists almost 

 entirely of two species of bivalve molluscs, which are raked out of the mud 

 with the tusks, and easily crushed by the flat molar teeth. Whether the 

 tusks are also employed to drag the animals out of the water by being 

 hitched on to the ice, is a disputed point. The cry of the walrus is a loud 

 roar, which, when many are together, can be heard for a long distance. 



