SEALS. 
23 
life has reached its highest development. They are without 
external ears^ the palms and soles of their feet are covered with 
Fig. 
The Common Seal {Phoca vitulind). 
hair, and their coat has no woolly under-fur, consisting only 
of long stiff hairs lying closely against the skin ; so that their 
fur is of value only for the manufacture of coarse wearing apparel. 
The family contains eight or ten genera, separated chiefly by the 
form of their teeth and the varying development of the toes, which 
in some are all of about the same length, while in others the first 
and fifth toes are much elongated beyond the rest, in order to 
support the web. 
The most noteworthy of the Phocidse exhibited are : — the 
Sea-Leopard [Stenorhynchus leptonyx), of the Antarctic seas; 
the Hooded Seal [Cystophora cristata), from Greenland, the male 
of which has a peculiar bag of skin on its muzzle, which it has 
the power of inflating with air when excited ; the Sea-Elephant 
(Macrorhinus leoninus), the largest of the famdly, sometimes 
attaining nearly 20 feet in length ; and various other smaller 
Seals, such as the Common Seal of the English coast [Phoca 
vitulind ) . 
