RINGED SEAL. 247 



GA BNI VORA . PBOOID^. 



PINNIPEDIA. 



RINGED OR MARBLED SEAL. 



Phoca hispida (Schreber). 



Specific Cha/racter, — Blackish grey above, marked mth oral whitish rings; 

 whitish below. Hair soft, sub-erect. Ascending processes of intermaxillaries 

 running to a point up the sides of the nasals ; bony palate acutely notched 

 behind ; posterior palatine foramena opening on or behind the palato-maxil- 

 lary suture. Grinders placed in a straight line, not oblique. Usual length 

 three to four feet. 



Phoca hispida, Sohkebee, Saugethiere, III. 312 {before 1778). 



,, fcetida, Fabrioids, in Miiller's Prod. Zool. Dan. p. VIII. 



(not described) 1776. 



,, annellata, HiisaoN, Skand. Fauna (1820). 



Calocephalus discolor, F. Cdviek, Diet. So. Nat. XXXIX. 545 (1826). 

 Pagomys fcetidus, J. E. Qkat, Proc. Zool. Soo. 1864, 31. 



Neitseic of Greenlanders, Nerpa of Kussians, Floe-rat of Sealers, Bodach 

 of Hebridians ? 



The Ringed Seal, in its external features, comes very 

 near the common species, though it may be distinguished 

 by its constantly smaller size, and usually by the distinctly 

 annulated character of its markings. Better points of 

 distinction, however, are to be found in the skull and 



