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Show 1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 417 ferent colours; this, however, has long been known to the Seal-hunters. Male.-The length of the male Saddleback rarely reaches 6 feet, and the most common length is 5 feet ; while the female in general rarely attains that length. The colour of the male is of a tawny grey, of a lighter or darker shade in different individuals, on a slightly straw-coloured or tawny-yellowish ground, having sometimes a tendency to a reddish-brown tint, which latter colour is often seen in both males and females, but especially in the latter, in oval spots on the dorsal aspect. The pectoral and abdominal regions have a dingy or tarnished silvery hue, and are not white as generally described. But the chief characteristic, at least that which has attracted the most notice, so much as to have been the reason for giving it several names, from the peculiar appearance it was thought to present (e.g. "harp" Seal, "saddleback," & c ) , is the dark marking or band on its dorsal and lateral aspects. This "saddle-shaped" band commences at the root of the neck posteriorly, and curves downwards and backwards at each side superior to the anterior flippers*, reaches downwards to the abdominal region, whence it curves backwards anteriorly to the posterior flippers, where it gradually disappears, reaching further in some individuals than in others. In some this band is broader than in others and more clearly impressed, while in many the markings only present an approximation, in the form of an aggregation of spots more or less isolated. The grey colour verges into a dark hue, almost a black tint, on the muzzle and flippers; but I have never seen it white on the forehead as mentioned by Fabricius. The muzzle is more prominent than in any other northern Seal. Female.-The female is very different in appearance from the male: she is not nearly so large, rarely reaching 5 feet in length ; and when fully mature her colour is a dull white or yellowish straw-colour, of a tawny hue on the back, but similar to the male on the pectoral and abdominal regions, only perhaps somewhat lighter. In some females I have seen the colour totally different; it presented a bluish or dark grey appearance on the back, with peculiar oval markings of a dark colour apparently impressed on a yellowish or reddish-brown ground. These spots are more or less numerous in different individuals. Some Seal-hunters are inclined to think this is a different species of Seal from the Saddleback, because the appearance of the skin is often so very different and so extremely beautiful when taken out of the water; yet as the females are always found among the immense flocks of the Saddleback, and as hardly two of the latter females are alike, but varying in all stages to the mature female, and on account of there being no males to mate with them, I am inclined to believe with Dr. Wallace that these are only younger female Saddlebacks. The muzzle and flippers of the female present the same dark-chestnut appearance as in the male. Procreation and changes of coats in the young.-I have already * I use this very convenient sealers' vernacular term to express the " paws," " hands," <&c. of systematic authors. |