146 
CARNIVORES. 
The Elephant-Seal. 
Genus Macrorhinus. 
In the elephant-seal or sea-elephant (Macrorhinus leoninus ) the appendage on 
the nose of the male takes the form of a short proboscis, which, though generally 
hanging in a limp condition, can be expanded and dilated at the will of its owner. 
The end of this proboscis is obliquely truncated, and penetrated by the nostrils, and 
the whole organ communicates a most peculiar and almost ridiculous physiognomy 
to the animal. The female, however, resembles an ordinary seal in the form of the 
head. The teeth (which are shown in the accompanying woodcut) are very 
small in proportion to the size of 
the head; those of the cheek- 
series being of simpler structure 
than in the crested seal, and each 
inserted only by a single root. In 
the hind-feet the claws are want¬ 
ing, and their first and fifth toes 
are longer in proportion to the 
others than is the case with the 
crested seal. 
The elephant-seal is the largest 
the upper teeth of the elephant-seal. of all the pinnipeds, not even ex- 
The two on the right are the incisors, the next the tusk, and eluding the walrus, adult males 
H. e Flower ma11 ° MS *° ““ “ ““ cheek - teeth -- Atler Sir W ' attaining a length of from 15 to 
16 feet to the end of the body, 
or, reckoning from the tip of the trunk to the extremities of the outstretched 
flippers', a length of 20 or 22 feet. When in good condition the girth of an old 
male will be as much as 15 or 16 feet, while the yield of oil from such an animal 
will readi 210 gallons. The females are much smaller, not exceeding 9 or 10 feet 
in total'hength. The general colour of the coarse and short fur is grey, with a more 
or less marked blackish or olive tinge, darker on the upper than on the under¬ 
parts. 
^ The typical elephant-seal formerly inhabited many of the islands 
in the South Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as those in 
the Antarctic Sea; some of its favourite haunts being Juan Fernandez, the Falk¬ 
land Islands, Kerguelen Land, New Georgia, the South Shetlands, and Tristan 
da Cunlia. In such places, during the earlier portions of this century and in the 
preceding one, these animals were met with in enormous herds, as described in the 
accounts of the voyages of Cook, Peron, and Anson. Northwards the elephant- 
seal reaches Patagonia, and extends some distance up the western coast of South 
America, but how far does not seem to be clearly ascertained, although it certainly 
stops short of the tropic of Capricorn. When, however, we have crossed the Equator 
and reached some distance north of the tropic of Cancer, elephant-seals are, or were, 
once more met with between latitude 25° and 35° on the coast of California. The 
difference between the Antarctic and Californian elephant-seals is very slight 
