

SEA-LEOPARD SUAL: 23 
Sea-Leoparp Seat—Stenorynchus leptonyw. 
Description. —The sea leopard is sometimes confounded with the 
‘ eared seals,” which are often exhibited alive in aquariums. They are 
of another species described elsewhere. The general colouring of the 
animal above is yellowish light ashy-grey, with numerous, irregular, 
large spots (hence part of the name, leopard), or smallirregular patches 
of dull yellowish white, with darker grey spots on the sides of the neck 
and body; there area few black spots, and a few smaller white 
spots on the sides of the body. ‘The throat and the underneath 
portion of the body are dull yellowish white with a few small 
blackish spots. ‘The whiskers are small, wavy and tapering. ‘There 
are no external ears; the fore feet are triangular, the wrist being 
very short. This animal is a good example of the group of genera 
termed ‘‘earless seals,” from their having no external ear-couch 
visible. ‘The hind feet are formed of two nearly equal lobes, the 
three middle toes are small, the claws of the anterior limbs are 
small, of the posterior ones obsolete. ‘Theskull is elongate, the eyes 
are of moderate size, the irides being blackish-brown. Its fur is 
close-set, short, of flat tapering hairs; there is no under fur, It 
was called the ‘sea-leopard by the whalers who visited the southern 
seas. ‘Two specimens in the Sydney museum afford a striking 
illustration of the fact that colour and varieties of marking, when 
considered Alone, are but unreliable evidence in distinguishing 
species. One captured in Lyttleton Harbour, Canterbury, New 
Zealand, measured 11 feet 8 inches, its girth being 6 feet. It had 
32 teeth : 8 incisors, 4 canines, and 20 molars. ‘his species is of a 
more lengthened or slender form than the sea bear. Its length is ten 
or eleven feet, and its weight about four hundred pounds. It is 
the largest seal visiting the Australian coast. 
Habits.—1t is an amphibious animal, best fitted by nature for 
aquatic life ; in the water, its locomotion is rapid and graceful, on 
shore, it is laborious and awkward. Unlike the eared seals, the 
hind limbs are directly backwards, when at rest, nearly in a line 
with the body, and closely approximated to the tail. ‘They have 
only a moderate obliquely lateral power of motion; so that, on 
the land, instead of raising the hody clear of the ground, and walk- 
ing on the four legs, like the eared seals do, the sea-leopard can 
only progress painfully on the land, by the action of the abdominal 
muscles, and singularly flexible spine. They are residents of the 
colder portions of the southern seas. When they leave the Polar 
Sea they encounter a new enemy, the large sharks. They usually 
avoid these by reason of their rapid evolutions and fast swimming. 
Dr. Ludwig Becker, artist and clever observer, who perished in the 
early stages of the ‘‘ Burke and Wills” expedition across the Aus- 
tralian continent, noticed that this seal could open its mouth till the 
jaws formed an angle of nearly eighty degrees, that its spine is very 
flexible, that it can move rapidly right and left in the water, but slowly 
on land. The sound it makes is between a roaring and a grunting 
noise, but not very strong. 
