308 
THE PEDRO SHOAL. 
legs, and thighs, are concealed within the body, and 
the hand is extremely flattened and fln-like. The 
cranium is large, high, and convex : — there are ten 
molar teeth, and two canines in the upper jaw, and 
the same number in the lower ; these, with four 
incisors, above and below, make in all thirty two 
teeth. The molars are five~lohed, and conical ; and 
they terminate in a base of extremely rough enamel. 
The teeth are so disposed, that when the mouth is 
closed, there is no interspace above or below them, 
the points of the upper teeth Ailing the depressed 
intervals of the lower ones. Having no external 
auricles, and ears with foramina so small as to be 
hardly perceptible, the species belongs to the Inau- 
riculata of Peron, or the earless division of Seals. 
The nostrils are narrow Assures, which appear like 
two slits in the nose, and are frequently and rapidly 
opened. The small orifices of the ears are in a 
similar manner rapidly opened and shut. The lips 
are full and fleshy, and covered with numerous strong 
bristles, very flexible, of a black hue with transverse 
bars of grey. The colour of the body is an intense 
and uniform black. The hair is short and stifi*, and 
extremely and curiously close. This close bristly 
covering prevails every where except on the palms 
of the flippers, which are bare. The fore paw has 
much more the form of a foot than of a hand, the 
first finger, answering to the thumb, being the longest. 
genus, but I may be permitted to propose the trivial name of Wil- 
kianus for the species, in honour of George Wilkie, Esq., to whose 
courtesy I am indebted for the skin of an adult specimen probably of 
the same kind, shot by himself. 
