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413 
Hie females are cinereous. The flesh of the 
females and the young is said to resemble 
lamb, and the young are said to be as good 
•as sucking pigs. 
They live in families ; each male has from 
eight to fifty females, whom he guards with 
the jealousy of an Eastern monarch. Though 
they lie by thousands on the shore, qach 
family keeps itself separate from the rest, and 
is sometimes so numerous as to amount to 
above a hundred- The old animals which 
have been deserted by the females, are said 
to live apart, and are most excessively splene- 
tic and quarrelsome. They are extremely 
fierce, and enormously fat. It sometimes hap- 
pens that they approach or intrude upon each 
other’s station, hr which case a battle ensues 
between the two individuals; and they, in the 
conflict, disturb the repose of some'of their 
neighbours, till in the end the discord becomes 
universal, and is in a manner spread through 
the whole shore. Exclusive of the contests 
b 'tween these solitary males, similar disagree- 
ments take place between those who live in a 
more social state, either from invading each 
others’ seats, endeavouring to allure the fe- 
males, or interfering in the disputes of their, 
neighbours. These conflicts are very violent, 
and the wounds they receive are very deep* 
and resemble the cuts of a sabre. At the end' 
of the fray they fling themselves into the sea 
to wash away the blood. They shew a great 
attachment to their young, and shew all the 
signs of the deepest concern on losing them, 
"The ursine seal is an inhabitant of the islands 
in the neighbourhood of Kamtsehatka. In 
these islands they are seen from June to Sep- 
tember, during, which time they breed and 
educate their young.. In September they 
are said to quit their stations, and to return, 
some to the Asiatic, and some to the American 
shore; but arc generally confined to a space 
in those seas- between lat. 50 and 56. They 
swim very swiftly, at the rate of seven miles 
an hour, and are very tierce and strong. They 
are said to be very tenacious of life, and to- 
live a fortnight after receiving such wounds as 
would immediately destroy almost any other 
animal. 
3. Phoca leonina, bottle-nosed seal. This 
species (in the male) is distinguished by its 
projecting snout, which hangs several inches 
over the tower jaw; the upper part consisting 
of a loose wrinkled skin, which the animal, 
when angry-,. lias a power of inflating, so as -to 
give the nose an arched or hooked appear- 
ance. If is a very large species, the male 
measuring twenty, and the female about 
eighteen feet in length; The feet are short: 
the hinder ones webbed in such a manner as 
to resemble a kind of tins. 
In the British Museum is a- tolerably well 
preserved skin of a female, which formerly 
belonged to the museum of the Royal Society. 
T his species inhabits the seas about New Zea- 
land, the island of Juan Fernandez, and the 
Falkland islands. In Juan Fernandez, during 
tire breeding-season, viz. in June and July, 
they are seen in great numbers suckling their- 
young oil the shore. They bring two young 
at a birth ; the females are observed to be ex- 
cessively tierce during the time of rearing the 
young; "towards evening both the male and 
female swim out a little way to sea, the female 
bearing the young on her back, which it is 
said the mule frequently pushes off, in order 
to- oblige them to exercise their swimming. 
PHO 
powers, On the arrival of these animals on 
the breeding-islands, they are said to be so ex- 
cessively fat as to resemble skins of oil ; the 
tremulous motion of the blubber being plainly 
perceivable beneath the skin. A single ani- 
mal has been known to y ield a butt of oil, and 
to be so full of blood that what has run out lias 
filled two hogsheads. The flesh is eatable. 
Lord Anson’s sailors ate it under the deno- 
mination of beef, to distinguish it from that of 
the seal, which they termed lamb. 
4. Phoca jubata, sea lion, or leonine seal. 
This is so termed from, the large and loose 
mane or floating hair with which the head and 
neck of the male are furbished, The nose is 
short and turns up a little, the eyes are large, 
the whiskers very large and strong, the hair 
on the whole body is smooth, short, and 
glossy, its colour is a deep brown ; but 
those of this species which are found in 
Kamtsehatka are said to be reddish, and the 
females tawny. The males are far larger than 
females, and grow from the length of from ten 
tro fourteen feet; the females are from six to 
eight feet, and of a more slender form than 
the males. The weight of a full-grown male 
is from twelve to fifteen hundred pounds. A 
still greater size has been ascribed to those ’of 
Falkland isles, viz. that of twenty -five feet in 
length, and nineteen or twenty feet round the 
shoulders. 
These animals inhabit,, in vast numbers, the 
islands called Penguin and Seal islands, near 
Cape Desire, on the coast of Patagonia ; and 
are found within the Magellanic straits, and 
on Falkland islands, but have not been dis- 
covered in any other part of the southern 
hemisphere, nor in any other place nearer than 
the sea between Kamtsehatka and America. 
They live in families distinct from the ursine 
and other seals; their manners, however, are 
nearly the same; they are polygamous, each 
male being accompanied by from two to thirty 
females. The males utter a snorting sound, 
and occasionally roar like bulls ; the voice of 
the females resembles that of calves, and the 
young bleat like lambs. The food, of the- 
leonine seal consists of the smaller kinds of 
penguins, fish, seals, &c. but during the 
breeding-season they are said to fast lbr three 
or four months, during which time they swal- 
low a number oflarge stones, in order to keep 
their stomachs in. a distended state. 
5. Phoca lupina, urigne seal. This is a 
smaller species than the former,, being found 
from about three to eight feet in length. The 
body is thick at the shoulders, and gradually 
lessens to the hind legs. The head resembles 
that of a dog with close-cut ears; the nose is 
short and blunt; in the mouth are six cutting 
teeth above, and four below; the fore feet have 
four toes inclosed in a membranaceous sheath, 
so as to resemble fins; anti the hind feet- are 
hid in a continuation of the skin of the back-, 
and have five toes of unequal length like the 
fingers of the human hand; the tail is three 
inches long ; the skin is covered ith two sorts 
of hair, one like that of an ox, the other 
harder; the colours are various. These ani- 
mals are the sea-wolves mentioned by navi- 
gators off t tie island, of Lobos near the river 
Plata. They are said to appear there in vast 
multitudes, and to meet the ships, and even to 
hang at the ship’s side bv their paws, seeming 
to stare at and admire the crew, then drop 
off and return to their, former haunts. The- 
I natives of Chili kill them for the sake of their 
oil. 
PH CEN ICOPTERUS, or Flamingo, 
in ornithology, a gen tls of birds belonging to 
the order of grallre. The beak is naked, 
teethed, and bent, as if it was broken ; the' 
nostrils are linear; the feet are palmated^ 
and four-toed. There is but one species, 
viz. the bahamensis of Catesby, a native of- 
Africa and America. 
This bird resembles the heron in shape, 
excepting the bill, which is of a very singular* 
form. It is two years old before it arrives at 
its perfect colour, and then it is entirely red, 
excepting the quill-feathers, which are black. 
A full-grown one- is of equal weight with a 
wild duck ;' and when it stands erect, it is five" 
feet high. The feet are webbed. T he flesh 
isdelicate, and most resembles that of a par- 
tridge in taste. The tongue, above any other 
part, was in the highest esteem with the luxu- 
rious Romans. These birds make their nests 
on i.illocks in shallow water, on which they 
sit with their legs extended down, like a man 
sitting on a stool. They breed on the coasts 
of Cuba and the Bahama islands in the West 
Indies, and frequent salt water only. From 
the particular shape of its bill, this bird, in 
eating, twists its neck from side to side, and 
makes the upper mandible touch the ground; 
They are very stupid, and will no^rise at the 
report of a gun ; nor is it any warning,- to 
those who survive that they see others killed 
by their side; so that, by keeping himself 
out of sight-, a fowler may kill as many as he 
pleases. 
These birds prefer a warm climate. In the 
old continent they are not often met with 
beyond 40 degrees north or south. Tkev 
are met with every where on the African 
coast and adjacent isles, to the Cape of Good 
Hope: and sometimes on the coasts of Spain, 
Italy, and those of France lying in the Me- 
diterranean sea ; being at times found at Mar- 
seilles, and for some way up the Rhone. In 
some seasons they frequent Aleppo and the 
parts adjacent. They are seen also on the 
Persian side of the Caspian Sea, and thence 
along the western coast as far as the Wolga ; 
though this is at uncertain times, and chiefly 
in considerable flocks coining from the north- 
east', mostly in October and November; but 
as soon as "the wind- changes they totally dis- 
appear. They breed in the Cape Verd isles, 
particularly that of Sal. They go for the 
most-part together in flocks, except in breed- 
ing time. 'T hey are very numerous at the ' 
Cape ; keeping in the day on the borders of 
the lakes and rivers, and lodging themselves - 
at night in the long grass on the hills. Thev 
are also common to various places in the 
warmer parts of America, frequenting the 
same latitudes as in other quarters of the 
world; being found -at- Peru, Chili, Cayenne, 
and the coast of Brasil, as well as the various 
islands of the West Indies;- Sloane found 
them in Jamaica. When seen at a distance, 
they appear as a regiment of soldiers, being 
ranged alongside one another, on the bor- 
ders of the rivers, searching for food, which. - 
chiefly consists of small iish, or the eggs of 
them ; and of water-insects, which they search-, 
after by plunging in the bill and part ol the 
head, from time to time trampling with their 
feet to muddy the water, that their prey may- 
be raised from the bottom. Whilst they aie ' 
feeding, one of them is-said to stand sentinel/ . 
