EARLESS SEALS. 
i 43 
Distribution. 
Crab-Eating Seal. 
distinct cusps. The middle and largest of these cusps has its tip slightly inclined 
backwards, while the summits of the two smaller cusps are curved towards the 
middle one. Adult males of this species attain a length of as much as 12 feet. 
Moseley describes these animals as much resembling the common seal in coloration ; 
the short and glossy fur being spotted yellowish white and dark grey on the 
back, and the under-surface of a general yellowish colour. The females are 
usually darker than the males, in which the ground-colour of the fur is often 
of a silvery grey. 
The leopard-seal has a wide distribution in the southern, temperate, 
and Antarctic seas, having been recorded from the coasts of New 
Zealand, Australia, and the adjacent islands, from the Falkland Islands, 
Kerguelen Land, and the shores of Patagonia, and being also found on the 
pack-ice in the Antarctic Ocean. It does not appear to be migratory, and is 
sometimes found on the ice or on islands in considerable herds. In Kerguelen 
Land it was still pretty common at the date of the visit of the Challenger, a herd 
estimated at four hundred in number being reported on one of the small islands 
adjacent. 
The first of the remaining members of this group is the crab- 
eating seal ( Lobodon carcinopliaga) of the Antarctic Ocean. It 
is of a nearly uniform olive colour above, with the sides of the face and the 
under-parts yellowish white, and sometimes a few light-coloured spots on the 
flanks. The cheek-teeth are even more complex than those of the leopard-seal, 
having one cusp in front of the large main cusp, and from one to three distinct 
cusps behind the latter. The claws are entirely wanting on the hind-feet. 
Practically nothing is known of the habits of this species. 
Weddell’s seal (Leptonycliotes weddelli) is another Antarctic 
species, distinguished by the teeth having simple conical and some¬ 
what compressed crowns, without additional fore-and-aft cusps. It was originally 
obtained from the Southern Orkneys, but has also been obtained from Patagonia 
and the Antarctic pack-ice. The general colour is very similar to that of the 
leopard-seal, being pale greyish above, spotted with yellowish white on the back, 
and yellowish beneath. The jaw is weaker and the sockets of the eyes larger than 
in the leopard-seal. 
The last of these four southern species is Ross’s seal ( Omnia - 
tophoca rossi), long known by two skulls and a single skin obtained 
from the Antarctic pack-ice during the voyage of the Erebus and Terror in the 
years 1839-1843, and appropriately named after the commander of that expedition. 
The fur is rough and coarse, with a general greenish yellow colour, marked with 
oblique yellow stripes on the sides of the body and paler on the under-parts. 
There are no claws on the hind-feet, and but very small ones in front. The 
skull is characterised by the immense capacity of the sockets of the eyes, and 
also by the small size of the teeth. The cheek-teeth have very small fore-and-aft 
cusps. 
One of the two known skulls of this seal is peculiar in that, while on one side 
the first upper cheek-tooth and both the corresponding lower teeth are imperfectly 
divided by a vertical groove, on the opposite side of the upper jaw the place of this 
Weddell’s Seal. 
Ross’s Seal. 
