OCR Text |
Show 1868.] CAPT. ABBOTT ON THE SEALS OF THE FALKLANDS. 189 The number of the vertebrae in the two previously known skeletons of P. sibbaldii is sixty-four. Malm gives sixty-three as the number in his specimen, a very small bone corresponding to the last caudal of the other two being apparently absent. The number of the vertebrae in P. antiquorum appears never to exceed sixty-two. From the coincidence of these and other minor characters, for which I must refer to the work itself, it appears to m e highly probable that the Gothenburg Whale is a third example of P. sibbaldii. To the previously known osteological characters we are now enabled to add a description of the external appearance of the species. It differs notably from P. antiquorum in colour, being described by Malm as of a deep slate-colour, dashed with washes of a paler hue, and gradually passing to a lighter shade below, with scattered small spots of milk-white on the inferior surface. The inner sides of the pectoral fins are white, and the under surface of the lobes of the tail approaching to that colour. Like the other two known examples of the species, the present specimen was not a full-grown animal; it measured 53' 10" long in a straight line. The skull is 10' 2" in length. The skeleton, prepared skin, and portions of the viscera are preserved in the Museum at Gothenburg, of which Prof. Malm is the superintendent. 2. O n the Seals of the Falkland Islands. By Captain C. C. A B B O T T . Communicated, with Notes, by P. L. S C L A T E R, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society*. Sealskins and Seal-oil are two of the principal products of the Falkland Islands. The boats employed in collecting these articles of commerce are usually from 20 to 30 tons in measurement, and are manned by four or five men. They are sent out laden with provisions, casks for the oil, and salt for preserving the sealskins; they are frequently out for months together, cruizing about the islands, and seldom return without a full cargo. I only know of four varieties of Seals being found among these islands. These are:-1. The Sea-Elephant; 2. The Sea-Lion; 3. The Fur-Seal; and 4. The Sea-Leopard. 1. THE SEA-ELEPHANT. (Morunga elephantina.)f This Seal is called the "Sea-Elephant" from the prolongation of * My friend Capt. C. C. Abbott, who was formerly resident in the Falkland Islands, and has contributed so largely to our knowledge of its ornithology (see his articles in the ' Ibis,' for 1860 and 1861), has kindly drawn up this article at my request. W e know so little of the habits and localities of the marine Carnivora that the value of such notes of a practical observer cannot be estimated too highly.-P. L. S. • t There can be no question of this being the Morunga elephantina (Mol.); Gray, Catal. of Seals and Whales (1866), p. 39. Dr. Gray must have made some mistake when he says (Ann.Nat.Hist. March 1868,p.215) that Capt. Abbott informed him that this animal has become extinct in the Falklands.-P. L. S. |