30 MAMMALS OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS 



FAMILY PHOCIDAE. 



Harp seal ; Saddle-back. Phoca groenlandica Erxle- 

 ben. 



Color of adult male grayish white, face black and ablack 

 band on the side which meets over the shoulders and tail. 

 Females variously mottled. First and second toe of front 

 flipper about equal in length. Total length of adult about 

 5 feet. Very rare from the northern seas. One record 

 only for the county and the state. One taken at Nahant, 

 the skeleton of which is in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology at Cambridge, Mass., labeled, Nahant, L. Agassiz 1 . 



Harbor seal ; Sea-dog". Phoca vitulina concolor, 

 Dekay. 



Very common off the coast. They can often be seen on 

 the Rocky Islands in Salem Harbor, and almost any time 

 off Ipswich Beach and in the Essex River. As soon as the 

 tide goes down enough, they come out of the water onto 

 the sand bars, where they lie sunning themselves until the 

 tide comes in and covers the bars. With very iittle in- 

 stinctive fear of man, they are by nature gentle and affec- 

 tionate, quickly become tame if well treated, and are very 

 intelligent; yet they are persistently shot at by gunners 

 and fishermen at every opportunity. In fact a bounty of 

 two dollars has recently been offered for their tails as a 

 further inducement to shoot them, and a price put on 

 their skins. The harm seals do to fishermen is of compar- 

 atively small account. They should, it seems to me, be 

 protected by law, and with this protection they would soon 

 become a common feature of our shores. 



Hooded seal ; Crested seal. Cyslophora cristata 

 (Erxleben). 



Length, 7 feet. Head of male with a large moveable bag 

 extending from the nose to behind the ear. Color, bluish 

 black above, lighter beneath, varied with whitish spots. 

 Distinguished from other seals by the number of teeth, 

 which are four above and two below, instead of six above 



1 Allen's N. A., Pinnipeds, page 640. 



