18 



Monaclius albiventer. Skull. From Cuvier, Oss. Foss. 



Muzzle rather elongate, broad, hairy, with a slight groove between 

 the nostrils ; whiskers small, quite smooth, flat, tapering. Pore feet 

 short; fingers gradually shorter to the inner one; claws 5, flat, 

 truncate. Hind feet hairy between the toes ; claws very small ; hair 

 short, adpressed, with very little or no under-fur. SkuU depressed; i 

 nose rather depressed, rather elongate, longer than the length of the 

 zygomatic arch ; palate ang-ularly notched behind. Cutting-teeth -i, 

 large, notched within, the middle upper much smaller, placed behind 

 the intermediate ones. Canines large, conical, sharp-edged. Grinders 

 |i|, large, crowded, placed obliquely with regard to the central pala- 

 tine line; crown large, conical, with several small conic rhombic 

 tubercles. Lower jaw angulated in front below, with diverging : 

 branches, the lower edge of the branches rounded, simple. The ! 

 grinders, except the two first in both jaws, are implanted by two 

 roots ; their crown is short, compressed, conical, with a cingOlum ! 

 strongly developed on their inner side, and developing a small ante- 

 rior and posterior accessory cusp ; the upper jaw is much less deep 

 than in Halichoerus.; the canines are relatively large, and the nassd ! 

 bones are much shorter. 



The feet, palate, and teeth resemble those of the genus Gallo- 

 cephalus (O. communis), but the grinders are larger and less deeply 

 lobed ; and it has the smooth whiskers of the restricted genus Phoea 

 (P. harlata). It differs from the latter genus in the depressed form 

 of the skuU, the large tubercular grinders, and the angular termina- 

 tion to the palate. 



As the other subtropical Seal, PJioca tropicalis (Gray, Cat. Seals, 

 B. M. 28), from Jamaica, described froni an imperfect skin without 

 a skiill, has similar spiaU smooth whiskers, it may very probably, ' 

 when its skull has,,been examined, be found to belong to this genus, 

 which win then prijye to be a subtropical form of the famUy. 



