VI.-ON THE WEST INDIAN SEAL (MONACHUS TROPICALIS, 



GRAY). 



By Frederick W. True and P. A. Lucas. 



In October, 1883, the National Museum received, tbrougb the kindly 

 offices of Prof. Felipe Poey, of Havana, Cuba, the mounted skin of a 

 seal which had been on exhibition in that city during the summer of 

 the same year. The seal was reported to have been captured in the 

 vicinity of Havana. Upon arrival at the Museum it proved to be, as 

 Poey had suspected, a specimen of the seal which Gray had provision- 

 ally referred to the genus Monachus, under the name of M. tropicalis. 

 The skin was imperfectly prepared, and it was deemed advisable, there- 

 fore, that it should be remounted. Upon examination it was found that 

 the skull was mounted in the skin, and that the bones of the fore and 

 hind flippers had not been removed. Owing to this fortunate accident 

 it is possible to describe for the first time the cranial characters of the 

 species. 



The specimen is a female, and apparently adult, though not aged. Its 

 length, measured from the end of the tail to the extremity of the muz- 

 zle, in a straight line, is fifty-three inches. 



So far as external characters are concerned, the Havana specimen 

 agrees with the description of Gosse, published in his "A Naturalist's 

 Sojourn in Jamaica," which appeared in 1851, and with that of Gray, 

 founded upon an imperfect specimen now or until recently in the British 

 Museum. It presents, however, several minor differences, the more im- 

 portant of which we will now proceed to discuss. 



The discrepancy which first meets our attention relates to the color of 

 the whiskers. These are stated by Gosse to be of a "black hue, with 

 transverse bars of gray." In the specimen before us the whiskers are 

 horn-colored, with blackish tips. 



The color of the body is described by Gosse in his earlier pages as 

 "intense and uniform black"; but subsequently, when treating of a speci- 

 men captured by Wilkie, he gives a different description, and one which. 

 with very slight modification, is applicable to the specimen before us. 

 The fur of Wilkie's specimen is said to have been " nearly uniform 

 dirty ash-gray; black at the base and gray at the tips of the hairs. It 



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