■ aj ; "-n •-n PRESENTED The Trustees OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1901-1904 /• k NATURAL HISTORY Vol. II. ZOOLOGY (VERTEBRATA: MOLLUSCA : CRUSTACEA) LONDON : PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 1907 {All Rights Reserved) Sold by Longmans and Co., 39 Paternoster Row, E.G. ; Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly, W. ; DuLAU and Co., 37 Soho Square, W. ; AND AT The British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W. PEEFACE. When, in 1901, the Expedition of the S.S. 'Discovery,' under Captain Scott, R.N., was sent to the Antarctic Regions, the Trustees of the British Museum gave their assistance to this national enterprise by allowing the cases containing the natural history specimens which might be obtained by the Expedition to be sent to the Natural History Museum for unpacking and sorting. They further undertook to publish a detailed report on the collections so obtained, under the superintendence of the Director of the Natural History Departments. Some of the most important collections have been dealt with by naturalists who were members of the Expedition. Thus, the Mammals and Birds are described by Dr. Edward A. Wilson, the Isopoda and Pycnogonida by Mr. T. V. Hodgson, and the Rocks (in relation to Field Geology) by Mr. H. T. Ferrar. Other groups have been dealt with by members of the staff of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum : Mr. Boulenger describes the Fishes ; Mr. E. A. Smith, the Gastropoda, Lamellibranchia, and Brachiopoda ; Mr. Jeifrey Bell, the Echinoderma ; Dr. Caiman, the Crustacea Decapoda, and the Cumacea ; Mr. Kirkpatrick, the non- calcareous Sponges; whilst Mr. G. T. Prior has prepared a petrographical description of the Rock-specimens. It has been necessary to obtain the assistance of other .specialists in order to deal with the rest of the collections. So far as the latter group of contributors is concerned, the following is a list of the subject-matters, together with the name of the naturalist who has undertaken the work in each case : — Embryos of Seals Anatomy of Emperor Penguin tunicata .... Cephalodiscus . Cephalopoda NUDIBRANOHS AND PtEROPODS POLYZOA Eggs and Young of Asterias Amphipoda Schizopoda Nebali^ . ostracoda Copepoda . Dr. Marrett Tims. Mr. W. p. Pycraft. Prof. Herdman. Dr. Ridewood. Dk. Hoyle. Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G. Mr. H. W. Burrows. Prof. MacBride. Mr. a. 0. Walker. Mr. Holt. Dr. J. Thiele. Prof. Brady. Dr. Wolfenden. IV PEEFACE. CiRRIPEDIA Myzostoma ACARI collembola polych^ta Gephyr^a Ch^tognatha . • . Nemertines Free Platyhelminthes Cestoda . Nematoda zoantharia Alcyonaria and Pennatulida Hybromedus^ . Calcareous Sponges . Radiolaria Mosses Lichens Alg/e (Marine) . Alg^ (Fresh-water) . Alg^ (Calcareous) Phytoplankton . Prof. Gruvel. Prof. v. Graff. Dr. Trouessart. Prof. Carpenter. Prof. Ehlers. Mr. a. E. Shipley. Dr. Fowler. Prof. Hubrecht. Mr. F. F. Laidlaw. Mr. a. E. Shipley. Dr. v. Linstow. Mr. Clubb. Prof. Hickson. Mr. E. T. Brown. Mr. Frewen Jenkin. Mr. Lewis H. Gough. M. Jules Cardot. Mr. Darbishire. Mrs. Gepp. Dr. Fritsch. Dr. Foslie. Dr. Lewis H. Gough. The work of securing the assistance of these specialists and of distributing the collections has been performed by Mr. Jeffrey Bell, of the Zoological Department, who has also acted as sub-editor of the Zoological and Botanical portions of the reports. The Keeper of Minerals, Mr. Fletcher, has superintended the reports in the subjects belonging to his department. The Director desires to acknowledge the ability and energy which have been brought to bear on the preparation of the Zoological reports by Mr. Jeflrey Bell. Owing to his care, the reports have been got ready by the various contributors and published within a reasonable time after the return of the ' Discovery ' from the Antarctic Regions. Neither trouble nor expense has been spared in order to render the illustration and presentation of the Natural History of the Expedition worthy of the generous efforts both of Captain Scott and his fellow-explorers and of those who provided the funds for that enterprise. E. Ray Lankester. October, 1906. PREFACE TO VOLUME II The chief part of the present volume is Dr. Wilson's beautifully illustrated report on the Birds and Mammals, giving his personal experiences during the Expedition, as well as the results of subsequent study of the collections. This Expedition was the first to discover a nesting colony of the Emperor Penguin. All tlie other collections of vertebrates made during the Expedition are here reported on, with the exception of the embryos of seals and the pelagic fishes, which will be dealt with later. The investigation into the development of the feathers of the penguin raises several points of great morphological significance. The collection of fishes is small, but interesting. The discovery of two new species of Cephalodiscus, the presence of which in the collection was first noticed by Prof. Ray Lankester, has been made the basis of an important contribution to our knowledge of the small group to which it belongs. All the Mollusca collected by the ' Discovery,' except the " Pteropoda," are reported on ; the Brachiopoda were but poorly represented. As Dr. Caiman's reports on two divisions of Crustacea have been a very long time in type, it was decided to publish them as soon as possible. Several reports have already been printed for the third volume, which will probably appear early next year. F. Jeffrey Bell. December 3, 1906. TABLE OF CONTENTS. VERTEBRATA. I. — Mammalia (Whales and Seals). By Edward A. Wilson, M.B. (66 pp., 5 Pis.) IL— AvES. By Edward A. Wilson, M.B. . (118 pp., 13 Pis.) III. — On Some Points in the Anatomy of the Emperor and Adelie Penguins. By W. P. Pycraft, A.L.S. . . (36 pp., 1 PI.) IV.— Pisces. By G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. . . . (5 pp., 2 Pis.) PTEROBRANCHIA. Cephalodiscus. By W. G. Ridewood, D.Sc, Lecturer on Biology at St. Mary's Medical School, Uuiversity of Loudon. (67 pp., 7 Pis.) MOLLUSCA. I. — Cephalopoda. By W. E. Hoyle, D.Sc, M.A., Keeper of the University Museum, Manchester. .... (2 pp.) II. — Gastropoda. By Edgar A. Smith, I.S.O., Assistant Keeper, Zoological Department. . . . . . (12 pp., 2 Pis.) III. — Amphineura. By the same. . . . . (l p., 1 PI.) IV. — Nudibranchiata. By Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G., LL.D., Vice- Chaucellor of the University, Sheffield. . . (28 pp., 1 PI.) V. — Lamellibranchiata. By Edgar A. Smith, I.S.O. . (7 pp., 2 Pis.) BRACHIOPODA. . By Edgar A. Smith, LS.O. . . . . . (2 pp.) CRUSTACEA. I.— Decapoda. By W. T. Calman, D.Sc, Assistant, Zoological Depart- ment. ......... (7 pp.) II. — Cumacea. By the same. . . . . • ('» pp-. ^ I'l-) VOL. 11. h A^u^ INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORT ON MAMMALS AND BIRDS. The collection of JVIammals and Birds which forms the l)asis of my Report was made on board the 'Discovery,' and the ' Morning' in the Southern Seas, between 1901 and 1904. For the 'Discovery' collections I am responsible myself; the 'Morning' collections were made by Dr. G. A. Davidson during two voyages of relief to us under Captain Colbeck in 1902 and 1903. It is not necessary for me to write at length upon the circumstances under which our voyage was made. Its history is to be found in detail in Captain Scott's narrative (The Voyage of the 'Discovery,' 2 vols., London, 1905). What we who were members of the Expedition owe to Sir Clements ]\Iarkham, and what we owe to all who interested themselves, as he did, in our work and in our welfare, is there told in a way which leaves little for me to add. We agree with every word of it. But with regard to Captain Scott himself there is a point t(j be mentioned which finds no place in his book, namely, the untiring interest that he took in the scientific work of those who were placed under his command. Where opportunities must be made and taken at the right moment, it speaks well for the Commander if they are not often missed ; and I can say, for my own part, that although a failure to seize opportunities sometimes happened, it was not once due to any lack of sympathy on his part. It is to tlie interest and goodwill that he showed in all our work that such results as we have been able to collect are very largely duo. But, indeed, there was not one of the naval oflicers who did not constantly go out of his way to help us by observation, or by practical and often heavy and unpleasant labour ; and, if I mention Eng. -Lieut. Skelton as having given me personally the most useful help of all, first as a photographer, and then as a keen sportsman and collector, it does not mean that the others were less generous. I owe much to Mr. Hodgson, who, in my absence on various sledge journeys voluntarily made it his duty to carry on my work ; and to Lieut. Royds, who took a very practii-al part in the collection of facts and observations. X INTRODUCTION. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Jacob Cross (First Class Petty Officer, E.N.), who made himself acquainted with my work, and gave up much of his spare time to help in it. As a skinner of seals and penguins he had no equal on the ship, and soon surpassed his teacher. Although the majority of the photographs used in these reports were taken, as I have said, by Lieut. Skelton, I have also used photographs liy other members of the Expedition, and for these I express my thanks to them, while I acknowledge their names in the " List of Illustrations." The coloured plates are from drawings by myself, as are tlie other illustrations iu lilack-and-white, with one exception, namely Plate III. of the Seals, which has been reproduced from drawings by Mr. Engel Terzi. While acknowledging with real gratitude the time and attention that my proofs have received from Captain G. E. H. Barrett Hamilton, who has looked over the Report upon the Seals, and from Mr. Eagle Clarke and Mr. Pycraft, who have both been good enough to revise the Birds, I must at the same time take full responsibility for the errors and shortcomings that may be found in them. My sincere thanks are due to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and i\Ir. Oldfield Thomas for the facilities given to me while at work in their respective departments, and to Mr. Jeffrey Bell, as General Editor, for much kindly help and many excellent suggestions. Edward A. Wilson. Westal, Cheltenham. Jannarij 2nd, 1907. ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE EEPOET ON THE MAMMALS. COLOURED PLA.TES. Whales. I. An Unnamed Whale. Seals. I. An adnlt Weddell's Seal w ith its yonng. II. Tlie heads of tlie four common Antarctic Seals — Lppfoni/rJiotes weddelli, Stenorhinchvs leptomjx, Lohodon carrinop/iaz/vs, and Ommatnplioca rosxi. III. Parts of the jaws of an old Weddell's Seal, with worn teeth. IV. Adult female and young of Hooker's Sea Lion, in the Auckland Islands. FIGURES Fig. 1. Balaenopfera mmculits . „ 2. Neohalaena marglnata „ ;'. Hypcroodon rostratvs „ 4. Orca gladiator rising to blow . „ .5. Orra gladiator rising to blow . „ i;. Orca gladiator „ 7. An Unnamed Dolphin . „ S. Weddell's Seal, adult female „ 1). Weddell's Seal, adult female . „ 10. A rookery of Weddell's Seals . „ 11. Weddell's Seal at its blow-hole. „ 12. Weddell's Seal and young just born „ 13. Weddell's Seal and young „ 14. Weddell's Seal and young „ 1.5. Weddell's Seal suckling its young „ 16. Young Weddell's Seal, just born „ 17. Young Weddell's Seal, just born „ 18. Yonng Weddell's Seal, ten days old „ 19. Young Weddell's Seal, moulting IN TEXT. From a ilrawing hj E. Wilson To face IJ. 4 »> E. Wilson >» 4 )» E. Wilson »? 4 From a ^ihotograpli hg R. Ford 0 >? E. Shackleton (i From a drawwfi //// E. Wilson 8 J) E. Wilson 8 From, a photofjraph hj E. Skelton 12 »j R. Skelton 12 )» E. Shackleton 14 )) R. Skelton 14 >) R. Skelton 16 •>^ R. Ford 16 )) R. Skelton 18 »• R. Skelton 18 1J R. Skelton 20 ?* L. Bernaechi 20 )) R. Ford 22 »i R. Skelton 22 xu A. E. WILSON. Fig .20. i» 21. )» 2lA »5 2lB »» 22. Ji 2.3. »» 24. 1* 2.'). )» 2n. n 27. ?* 28. 1» 29. ?» 30. ii 31. :J 32. 11 33. 1' 34. Young Wcddoll's Seal, two months old Weddell's Seal, adult . Adult Weddell's Seal travelling on ice Yonng Weddell's Seal in the first week Head of adult Sea Leopard Adult Crab-eating Seal . Head of adult frab-cating Seal Domed F.low-hole of Weddell's SomI Scars in skin of Crab-eating Seal Ross' Seal, adult . Ross' Seal, adult . Ross' Seal, adult . Young male Sea Elephant, Macquarie Islands Honker's Sea Lion, Auckland Islands Hooker's Sea Lion, Auckland Islands Hooker's Sea Lion, Auckland Islands Hooker's Sea Lion, Auckland Islands Fnun a ]ili(4(i(iriifli h / R. Ford To fare p 24 S) L. Bernacchi 24 5? R. Skelton 20 )) R. Ford 26 5> R. Skelton 28 )) R. Ski'lton 32 1» E. Skelton 32 From (I ilr 'iir'niij h / F. ^Mlsoii 38 »j E. Wilson 38 From a 'photoyrafh Inj R. Skelton 44 )) R. Skelton 44 5) R. Skelton 44 !) R. Skelton 52 R. Ford R. Ford CO CO )* Mr. McGregor Wri ?ht „ C4 19 Mr. McGregor Wri gilt .. 04 ILLUSTEATIONS IN THE EEPOET ON THE BIEDS. COLOURED PLATES. L View of the Emperor Penguin Rookery at Cape Crozier. IL Head of an adult Emperor Penguin. in. Heads of young Emperor Penguins at various stages of immaturity. IV. One of the Emperor Penguin chickens picked up frozen at Cape Crozier. V. The feet of Emperor Penguins, young and old. VL Eggs of the Emperor Penguin. VII. Eggs of the Emperor Penguin. VIII. Heads of the King Penguin, youug and old. IX. Heads of the Adelie Penguin, young and old. X. The feet of the Adelie Penguin, young and old. XI. Heads of adult and immature Royal Penguins ; and the head of a (treat Penguin. XII. Heads of McCormiek's Skua, young and old. XIII. Feet and legs of McCormick's Skua at various ages. FIGURES IN TEXT. Fig. 1. Rookery of Emperor Penguins at Cape Crozier From a phvtiKjnijili „ 2. Rookery of Emperor Penguins at Cape Crozier „ „ 3. Emperor Penguins .... „ „ 4. Emperor Penguins .... „ „ 5. Emperor Penguin Rookery at Cape Crozier. „ „ 6. Emperor Penguins hegiuning to moult . „ „ 7. Emperor Penguins in full moult . . „ „ 8. Emperor Penguin and chick ... „ „ 9. Emperor Penguin and chick ... „ „ 10. Emperor Penguin and chick ... „ „ 11. Emperor Penguins tobogaiming . . „ „ 12. Emperor Penguin walking ... „ „ 13. Rookery of Emperor Penguins at Cape Crozier „ by C. Royds ToJ me p. 1 R. Skelton , 1 C. Royds i R. Skelton 4 R. Skelton 8 T. Hodgson 12 R. Skelton 12 R. Skelton 14 E. Wilson 16 R. Skelton 16 C. Royds 18 C. Royds 18 E. Wilson 22 XIV Fig .14 )) 15 )? IG )) 17 95 18. )» 19. 11 20. - 1 i2 ») •2i. )» 24 )1 25. ») 20 )J 27 )) 28. )5 2!). )5 ;iO » 31 )» 32. )» 33. IJ 34 )» 35. )) 36. )) 37. »? 38. ?? 39. 51 40. ») 41. )1 42. )» 43. )) 44 )> 45. )5 4G. A. E. WILSON. Emperor Pens'uin sleeping Emperor Penguin moulting Emperor Penguin chick taking its food Emperor Penguin cliicks. Emperor Penguin chick .... Emperor Penguin chick, sleeping Emperor Penguin chick, sleeping Emperor Penguin chick, crowing Emperor Penguin chick, piping for food . Frozen Emperor Penguin chicks and eggs . Eggs of the Emperor, King, and Adelie Penguins ...... King Penguins on Macquarie Island . Rookery of King Penguins on Maajuarie Island ...... Adelie Penguins ..... Adelie Penguins on the run Adelie Penguin rookery at Cape Adarc Adelie Penguins' nursery at Cape Adare . Adelie Penguins' pathway up the bills Adelie Penguins' rookery at Cape Adare . Adelie Penguins, clean .... Adelie Penguins, dirty .... Adelie Penguins, nesting at Cape Crozier . Adelie Penguins, changing places on the nest ....... Adelie Penguin chickens, beginning to moult Adelie Penguin and young on the nest The ecstatic attitude of the Adelie Penguin Marks made in snow by McCormick's Skua McCormick's Skua. .... McCormick's Skuas bathing in a thaw pool . Footprints of the Giant Petrel . A group of Black-browed Albatrosses Head of Broad-billed Whale Bird Moulted feathers of Gull and Curlew From a chairing % E. Wilson Tofncrp.n •)■) E. Wilson 22 From a p]iotoh hij R. Skelton 24 )j R. Skelton , 24 From a thai •i))fj hy E. Wilson 26 J? E. Wilson 26 J) E. Wilson 26 j> E. AYilson 28 ,, E. Wilson 28 From a phototj) aph by R. Skelton , 30 J) R. Skelton , 30 )) R. Skelton 30 )j R. Skelton 34 »> R. Skelton 38 )) R.. Skelton 38 )) E. Shacklcton 40 )» R. Skelton 40 )5 E. Shackleton , 42 )) R. Skelton 42 )) C. Royds 46 )S R. Skelton 46 9» C. Royds 48 J) C. Royds , 48 » L. Bernacchi , 52 11 R. Ford 52 From a drawiiuj by E. Wilson 56 ,, E. Wilson 56 From a phoiograplt by R. For J , 68 )i R. Ford 68 J) R.. Skelton 94 )) R. Skelton , 94 From a drawing by E. Wilson , 104 )) E. Wilson , 104 I. MAMMALIA. By Edward A. Wilson, M.B. CETACEA. (1 Plate.) Although there are no land mammals of any kind at present known to exist in the Antarctic, there is an amphibious and marine mammalian fauna in the ice-covered waters of the region, comprising an unexpected number of species, both of Seals and Whales. In the case of the Whales it would be hard to say how many different species are to be assigned to the Ross Sea alone. But so far as our own observations go, we can differentiate, though we cannot as yet name, at least six or seven that are distinct from one another. BALiENA AUSTRALIS. The Southern Right Whale. Bcdana australis, Desmoulins, Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nafc., ii. (1822), p. 161 ; Flower, List Cetacea B. M., (1885), p. 2 ; Hutton and Drumniond, Animals of New Zealand (1904), p. 42. It seems more than doubtful whether this whale has ever frequented the ice- covered seas of the Antarctic area, but if it has, it is now quite certain that it has either changed its summer haunts from the Ross Sea, where Sir James Ross reported its existence in the forties of the last century, or has become so reduced in numbers as to be practically on the verge of extinction. Many whalers have journeyed in search of this whale to those very seas, and the remarks which are quoted below form the only evidence of its existence there at the present time. Captain Larsen, in an account of the voyage of the ' Jason,' has given some of his experiences, but beyond saying : " We have had a boat out .... in the hope of finding Rethvalen," and " the mate saw three more spouts, and he could only ascertain that one was from a Rethyal .... but did not see the whale again," he gives no other indication of its existence. He was at the time in about 67° S. lat, 61° W. long. Mr. Bull during his cruise in the ' Antarctic ' (1894-5) saw no sign of a Right Whale farther south than the Campbell Islands, though many, he says, were seen in that neighbourhood during May and June, and " plenty " were killed much farther north at the Kermadec Islands during the preceding winter months. On June 29th, off the Campbell Islands, they were seen in pairs and in large schools, but few were seen after this date, and none at the Auckland Islands, where the ship next went. Captain Jensen (1898-1900) too has killed the whale off the Campbell Islands, but has not seen one in 2 EDWARD A. WILSON. the Southern ice. And lastly, Mr. Bruce and Dr. Donald, who accompanied the ' Dundee Whalers' in 1892, have only to report its total absence. There has always been much discussion upon the report made by Sir James Ross in 1840, that "Right Whales" were exceedingly abundant in the waters of Ross Sea. But although his report has been fully tested, and much criticism applied to it by various explorers, and although whaling captains have hunted the area in question unsuccessfully, it would nevertheless be wrong to dismiss the report as having been founded upon error, when we consider that it was made by persons who had had more practical opportunities of becoming familiar with the Right Whale than have the majority of naturalists of the present day. By the " Right Whale " in his report, Sir James Ross certainly meant the Balsena dustralis, a whale which runs as a rule in pairs or singly, and is upw-ards of 50 to 70 feet in length. Its spout is doulile, one jet passing to each side upwards and forwards, but neither as high as the spout of the Rorqual. It is said to frequent the seas of the South, where it can find discoloured water of shallow depth. There it has been hunted almost to extermination by a method, the employment of which afibrds a very sufficient explanation, as it seems to me, of its disappearance. One has but to refer to any account of the South Sea Right Whale fishing industry to learn how first an active look-out was kept upon the bays where this whale was wont to come to calve, and how, secondly, the hunt began with the destruction of the calf, not because it was of value in itself, but because it was known that the mother would then become an easy prey, as she would not leave the bay without her suckling. This is, perhaps, the most complete and rapid method of exterminating an animal that has ever been adopted, and in the case of the Southern Right Whale it seems to have been only too successful. In the library of the Royal Geographical Society is to be found a short manuscript note by " Whaleljone," one of those, I believe, who accompanied the ' Dundee Whalers,' and in it are given a series of rough sketches which indicate methods of identifying the various whales of the Antarctic seas at a distance. In this note it is evident that " Whalebone " was convinced that Ross had mistaken a Rorqual, or a Finner Whale for a Right Whale, and his conclusions appear to be based upon an observation, which we were able to confirm, namely, that the Rorqual shows its fin only some few seconds after finishing its blow. This is a point to wdiich I shall again refer below. The Right Whale, in this manuscript by " Whalebone," is depicted, as usual, with no fin at all, with a double " spout," and a note to the eflect that it blows at regular intervals. Sir James Ross may, of course, have been mistaken, but he based his report apparently less on his own experience than on that of some of his crew who had been engaged in whaling cruises, and as this particular whale was at one time abundant in the Southern oceans, breeding freely ofi" the coasts of South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia, there would seem to be no prima facie reason to doubt that at certain seasons of the year it made its way to the Southern ice, as the similar Northern THE SOUTHEEN RIGHT WHALE. 3 form makes its way to the ice of the Northern seas in summer. From May to August, we are told, the females of Balcena australis visit the Continental coasts to calve. The males are seldom caught, as they rarely approach the land. From October to May, on the other hand, the chief whaling ground lies between the Chatham and Norfolk Islands. It is therefore during the Southern summer months that one may expect to find them wandering southward to the ice ; and it was in January, at the height of the Antarctic summer, that Sir James Ross was cruising in these Southern seas. However, the fact remains that, since the days of Sir James Ross, not one of these whales has Ijeen quite certainly seen there, and if the Right Whale still visits Ross Sea, it is certain that it no longer does so in anything approaching the numbers that were wont to come. We ourselves, in the ' Discovery,' saw not one. Mr. Bennett, in his "Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe " (1833-36), gives the following details of the species. He says that the barnacles which habitually find a footing on it, incrusting it like rugged rock, do so on account of its sluggish habits in the shallow seas. While at the surface, he says, it spouts regularly every ten or fifteen seconds ; the spout is from 6 to 8 feet high, and is emitted obliquely upwards and forwards. At each spout the nose comes high out of the water, and there is no inspiratory drawback as in other whales, the spout terminating abruptly, so that it can be recognised by ear even in the dark. In June and July, he says that pregnant females are to be found in South African bays, and in September mother and calf go out to sea. BALiENOPTERA MUSCULUS. The Rorqual or Finner. Balrmoptera musculus, Linn., Syst. Nat. i. p. 106 (17G6) ; Flower, op. cit, p. 5. Physalus australis, Desmoulins, Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat., ii. (1822), p. 166 ; Hector, Trans. Wellington Phil. Soc., 1878, p. 336. The most striking, perhaps, of all the Antarctic whales both for its abundance, its size, and for the great height of its vertical " spout," is the common Rorqual or Finner, which is said to reach a length of from 70 to 80 feet. It is distinctive also for other reasons. While the ' Discovery ' was cruising in Ross Sea we used to watch this huge whale come to the surface again and again to blow, at intervals of 30 to 40 seconds, and from the fact that at each of four or five appearances no vestige of a dorsal fin was visible, we began to wonder whether we had not found the " Right Whale " that was once reported to be so abundant in Ross Sea. Again and again the " spout" went up into the cold aii-, a white twelve- foot column of condensed moisture, followed by a smooth broad back, and yet no fin. For some time we remained uncertain as to its identity, till at last in " sounding " for a longer disappearance and a greater depth than usual, the hinder third of the enormous beast appeared above the surface for the first time with its little angular dorsal fin, at once dispelling any doubts we might X^.r\'\s^ 4 EDWARD A. WILSON. have had. We saw a very large number of these whales, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes in much greater nuniber.s. On March 2nd and 4th, 1904, when off Cape North and the Balleny Islands, we saw so many together that we could generally count half-a-dozen spouts at once. Many were then in a sportive mood and, in rolling over, showed some yellowish white on the under parts. Some, too, were bellowing, and the noise of the lilow was constant, far and near. There is much variety in the shape of the dorsal " fin " and in the extent to which the back is humped behind it ; in Fig. 1 are given a number of outlines which were taken on the spot. The " fin " is always situated far back upon the posterior third of the animal's length. Some, too, have excrescences on the dorsal fin which probably consisted of barnacles, but this we did not observe in the icy seas, where all that we saw were free from anything of the kind. We saw a pair of these whales in Table Bay on our voyage out ; again a pair off the coast of New Zealand, but nowhere did we see them in numbers till we reached the ice. In Ross Sea they were abundant. If, as Sir James Hector suggested, there are really four species of Rorqual in the Southern Hemisphere, they are probably not easily to be distinguished at a distance. I must refer all that we saw to the one species only, though it is possible that they represented also the Southern form of Rorqual which has been given specific distinction under the title B. (lustralis, the " Sulphur-Bottom " of Antarctic whalers. NEOBAL^NA MARGINATA. The Australian Wliale. Balcena maryinata, Gray, Zool. Ereb. and Terr., (1846), p. 48. Neohalana marginata, id., Suppl. Cat. S. aud W. (1871), p. 40 ; Flower, op. cit., p. 4 ; Hutton and Drummond, Animals of New Zealand (1904), p. 44. This whale, unless our identification is at fault, is also a common form in the Ross Sea, and is met with constantly wherever there is loose pack ice. It is a black or dark grey whale of from 20 to 30 feet in length, with a very rounded back, and a small hook-like dorsal fin which slopes well backwards. It appeared at the surface almost as it spouted, and as the head went under, the round back rolled up, showing its little dorsal fin, before it disappeared again. (See fig. 2.) As a rule this whale was solitary ; occasionally two or three, but never more, were seen together. It was always moving along in an orderly fashion, and never on any occasion disported itself, nor did it ever show more than the back and fin, as I have mentioned. AN UNDESCRIBED WHALE. (See Whales, Plate I.) Next must be mentioned a whale which Sir James Ross and McCormick have both mentioned as one " of large size, having an extremely long erect back fin," a r--^. < . I. k'l? f' • -> ^Y"'>' "f) FiG.^l. BalcEiK^tera musculus, see p. 3. Fig. 2. Neobalcena marginata, sec p. i. Fig. 3. Hypcroodon rostratus, see p. 5. To face p. 4. AN UNDESCEIBED WHALPL 5 descriptiou applied to a whale distinct from the Orca, which was spokeu of always as a " pieljald whale," or " a whale marked with white patches." This high-finnecl whale, however, of which I am now speaking, is without doubt an otherwise undescribed species, confined perhaps in its distribution to the Antarctic seas. On January 28th, 1902, we saw three together oft' Ross's Great Ice Barrier, and on February 8th, 1902, again four more of the same kind. They were all of them wholly black above, but had some white about the mouth or chin. In length they were from 20 to 30 feet. But the most striking characteristic about them was the disproportionate height of the dorsal fin, which was erect, pointed, and sabre- shaped, and stood, so far as we were able to judge, from three to four feet high. In all but one individual this fin curved slightly backwards, but in one the concavity of the curve was towards the head (see Whales, PI. I., fig. 2a). The "spout" appeared simultaneously with the appearance of the tip of the fin, and the nose, which was square and blunt, came well out of the water immediately after (see Whales, PI. I., fig. 1 ). As the head dipped under, the whole back and fin to its Ijase was seen (see Whales, PI. I., fig. 2). There is no possibility of mistaking this whale for another ; the length of the fin is approached only by the Orca, whose piebald colour aSbrds an easy means of identification even at a distance. Its movements are also very much more slow and dignified than the rapid racing of a herd of Orca whales, and I have no hesitation in declaring it to be a new species of which no example has as yet been taken, though I cannot refer it to any known genus. HYPEROODON ROSTRATUS. Bottle-nosed Whale. Bakma rostratn, 0. F. Miiller, Zool. Uan. Prod. (1776), p. 7. Hyperoodon rostratiis, Flower, op. cit., p. 9. A whale yet remains to be mentioned which I identify nevertheless with much hesitation, as it is impossible to be confident without having had a specimen to examine. On February 25th, 1902, when the ice had broken back in McMurdo Sound to a point some miles farther South than our winter quarters, we were visited by a small herd of long-snouted black whales which made a great noise in blowing and splashing about at play. There were about six or eight together, and all were in a sportive mood, and one as we were watching " breached," leaping clear of the water, in this way showing himself full length and broadside on against the sky. The sketch which is given (see fig. 3) was made upon the spot. The animal was some 20 to 30 feet in length, and wholly black above and below. The dorsal fin was a mere excrescence. In shape, the whale was long and slim, with a very prominent forehead and well-marked beak. Others of a similar kind were reported as " Bottle-nosed Whales " by various officers of the relief ship ' Morning,' and these were seen at the edge of the fast ice in McMurdo Sound during February of 1903 and 1904. It seems, therefore, on the B 2 6 EDWARD A. WILSON. whole, to Ije a fairly abundant species in the summer months, frequenting the edges of the ice as it breaks back to its farthest point. During our voyage out we were accompanied on November 5th (S. lat. 48° and E. long. 100°) by a .solitary male of this species, which was of the dull yellow colour that characterises the animal iu old age. It measured about 20 feet in length, and was covered with the white hieroglyphic markings which are said to be produced by the arms and suckers of the cephalopods upon which this animal feeds. In this case, as the whale remained with us for upwards of half an hour, and almost rubbed its sides against the ship, we had ample opportunity for observing it closely and satisfying our- selves as to its identification. It is, however, known mainly as a Northern species which lives, not in the ice, but on its outskirts, and in this, the whales which we identified as Hxjperoodon agreed, except that they were in the south and not the north. But if the whale is known to exist so far south as S. lat. 48°, there is every reason that it should follow the same instincts in the Southern Hemisphere that it follows in the Northern. It would then go south during the summer, keeping just at the margin of the ice, as we observed it to do in McMurdo Sound, and these facts, taken in conjunction with its occurrence in S. lat. 48°, makes me more certain that this is a species common to both Northern and Southern seas. It will be seen that the outline given (fig. 3) of the southern form is almost identical, except for a slight difterence in the dorsal fin, with that of Hyperoodon rostratus as figured in Flower and Lydekker's " Mammals " ; but it will also be seen to agree even more precisely with the outline given by Sir James Hector of Berardius Arnuxii, see pi. xvi, in a paper delivered to the Wellington Philosophical Society, Jan. 12th, 1878. Whatever, therefore, may be the true identity of this whale, and without a capture it is impossible to say, I give the facts for what they are worth. It is, at any rate, of interest to know that such a whale is to be found in the southernmost waters of the Antarctic ; and we may hope that before long some expedition may interest itself in the capture of these doubtful species. ORCA GLADIATOR. The Killer. Delphinus orca, Linn., Syst. Nat. (17(50), p. 108. Orca gladiator, Gray, Zool. Ereb. and Terr. (1846), p. 33 ; Flower, 0]>. cit., p. 18 ; Hutton & Drummoud, Animals of New Zealand (1901), p. .53. Turning now to the Dolphins, the largest of all, the Orca, or Killer, is very abundant, probably the most abundant, of all the Cetacea in the Southern seas. In Ross Sea, and particularly in McMurdo Sound, it was always to be seen — the first to arrive as the ice broke up — hunting along the cracks between the floes, and down the edges of the fast ice, for seals and penguins. Moving rapidly in large herds, sometimes amounting to a hundred, they were con- stantly rising to blow in the leads of open water (figs. 4 and 5). In length they were apparently from 15 to 20 feet ; in colour, a dirty grey above with a broad yellow-ochre- L. -t'iG. 4. Orca gladiator. Fiti. 5. Orca gladiator. To face p. 6. THE KILLER. 7 coloured saddle ou the back behind the dorsal fiu ; there was a patch of paler l)uft' Ijehind the eye, and so far as could be seen, the under parts were also pale yellowish white. Often they followed close in under the ship's stern, disporting themselves like the smallest of the Dolphins ; and in a herd that followed our ship on February 17th, 1904, we saw the young ones with their mothers. The young had not yet developed the yellow saddle, but its position was marked out as a dull grey patch in the darker colour of the back. The ear patch, however, was already distinct and of a yellow colour c|uite conspicuously marked. In the oldest, or at any rate the largest, the saddle is mainly ochreous yellow with an ill-defined anterior border which merges into the grey-black back. The posterior border on the other hand is well-defined. There is much variation in the size and general shape of the dorsal fin in this species, as may be gathered from the sketches given below (fig. 6), which were taken from the animals, as they sported round the ship, in McMurdo Sound. It is probable that some of these Killers remain always as far south as the periodical opening-up of the sea ice will allow them. They were with us in the autumn to the last days of open water in McMurdo Sound, and were again at once apparent when the ice broke up in the spring. Throughout the open part of the year, from the middle of September to the middle of March, we had schools of this whale in McMurdo Sound ; and, no doubt, we could have found them a little farther north in winter as often as the ice in Ross Sea was broken up by the southerly winter gales. For its diet in the south we have no actual evidence, but, regarding its alleged propensity for seals and penguins, there can be no possible doubt in my opinion that the scars and wounds inflicted on so many of the seals in the pack ice are the marks of wanton, or unsuccessful, attacks made on them by these whales. Such rents are exceedingly common, both as recently inflicted wounds and as mended scars, and the chief sufferers are the Lohodon Seals, which live habitually in the pack ice of the open sea, and not Weddell's Seals, which keep to the sheltered bights and bays along the coast-line or the cliffs of great ice barriers. An old Lohodon is but rarely to be found without some scars upon his coat ; and an idea of the extensive character of some of these wounds may be gathered ivova the account given below (see p. 39), and from the figure there given, which is taken from scars on one of the skins in our collection. The whole c[uestion of the probable causation of these scars being fully discussed in that chapter, I must refer my readers to it, and state here only that I have no doulit whatever in my own mind that the Killer is responsible for them. Penguins, also, in all probability pay heavy toll to these marauding bands, and from the excessive hurry in which they are often seen to leave the water when a herd of Killers is in sight, it is evident that they know their danger sufficiently well. Moreover, the repugnance they show to re-entering the water, even when chased by men or dogs upon the ice, is an additional proof that they know quite well where their customary danger lies, and that they feel it is safer to tackle an unknown and novel risk on the ice than to face what they know to be a certain danger in the water. 8 EDWARD A. WILSON. Weddell's Seals are by no means so liberally scarred by the Killer's teeth as are the Crab-eaters, and this results from the fact that they remain almost always some miles on the safer side of the ice-edge, and as far as possible from the open water. Here they are comfortably clear of the Killer Whales, which keep to the breaking edge of the fast ice, and the more or less open water of the pack. The Killer is heard to blow, and the spout is seen before the snout comes out of the water. They are generally moving at a rapid rate, and, as a rule, the whole head and back and dorsal fin come clear out of the water, after blowing, at every rise. They have the same habit of swimming in close proximity side by side that we have noticed also in the Eorqual. They may be travelling at a very fast rate, yet the pace is so uniform in each individual that they may appear fastened one to the other, each half a length in advance of its companion ; constantly appearing and disappearing in this manner they give the idea of a single animal with two dorsal fins, unless indeed they are so close that they can be separately distinguished. I cannot say what is the meaning of this habit either in the Rorqual or the Killer, but perhaps the young and the mother thus find an easy way of avoiding separation whilst making a passage from one district to another. The rano-e of the Orca in the South, as we ourselves observed it, lies between S. lat. 30° in W. long. 30°, where the northernmost examples were found, and S. lat. 78° in E. long. 170° where we saw hundreds at the farthest point of open water to the South. But if, as seems to be the case, the Southern form is identical with the Northern, the range of Orca gladiator must be considered universal. That the Southern form is identical with the Northern appears evident from Sir James Hector's mention of two examples which were obtained in New Zealand, the first of which ran ashore in Lyell's Bay, while the second, which he says appears to be a fully adult example of Orca gladiator, was cast up on the beach at Wanganui. (Proc. Wellington Phil. Soc. 1880.) It has been reported also from the Seychelles (4° to 5° S. lat.), from the Cape of Good Hope, from the Northern Pacific, and from the English coast ; and if further testimony is wanted as to its ubiquity, it is to be found in Mr. Bennett's words : — " Whales thus designated appeared to us in small bands, and chiefly in the vicinity of the equator. " ^ LAGENORHYNCHUS OBSCURUS. The Dusky Dolphin. Delphinus obscurus, Gray, Spic. Zool. (182s), p. 2. Lagenorhijnchus obscurus, Blanford, Mamm. Brit. India (1888), p. 580, ibique citata.l^ We saw the Dusky Dolphin {Lagenorhynchus obscurus), a well-known and unmistakable form, day after day playing round the ship in the Southern ocean. We saw also an allied and hitherto unrecognised species of equally characteristic * Bennett, " Whaling Voyage Round the Globe," 1833 to 1836, ii., p. 289. I The date of Mr. True's paper is 1889. Fig. 6. Orca gladiator {see p. 6). Fig. 7. An Unnamed Dolphin {see p. 9). To face p. S. THE DUSKY DOLPHIN. 9 and constant marking, as descriljed below. The distribution of these two Dolphins appears to overlap, and yet, though we had many schools of each from time to time around the ship, they never mingled. On November 14th and 15th in 11)01, when we were between 55° and 60" S. lat. in 135° E. long., we had Dusky Dolphins round us, and were at the same time just outside the ice pack. But a few days later we lost them, and were joined by the other species, which we at once called the Hour-glass Dolphin from the peculiar and characteristic arrangement of its colouring. In this it somewhat resembles that of the Dusky Dolphin, yet is quite easily to be distinguished from it. AN UNDESCRIBED DOLPPIIN. This new Dolphin is to be met in abundance in the outer zone of the Antarctic pack ice. We saw it on November 19th in about the same latitude in which we had seen Lagenorhynchus obscurus four days before, but farther to the east. We again saw numbers playing round the ship on December 29th, 30th and 31st, and on January 1st, the day before we actually sighted ice on our way to the South in 1902. Also in 1904, as we made our way to the North, on March 5th and 6th we had large schools of this same Dolphin round the bows of our ship, moving easily with us, though we were running at from 8 to 10 knots an hour. They are from 8 to 10 feet long, and strikingly marked with white and brown. The whole of the back, head, dorsal fin and tail is rich dark brown, as are also the under parts ; but there are on each side of the body two extensive patches of white which are separated from one another just below the dorsal fin by an isthmus of the brown which runs obliquely down and forwards, uniting the brown of the upper parts with the brown of the lower parts. In other words, the animal may be described as uniformly dark brown all over save for a broad white lateral band broken in the centre by a Ijridge of brown, but running otherwise from nose to tail and uniting al)ove the tail. The dorsal fin, which is dark brown, is large in proportion to the size of the animal, and in most cases is falciform, often markedly crooked, almost to a right angle (fig. 7). Attempts were made with the harpoon to obtain an example of this Dolphin, but without success, and it remains for others to give a more detailed description than is possible at present from observations made only upon animals in active motion. This short and very insufficient account of the Whales and Dolphins observed during our cruise in Antarctic waters, though it throws little light ujDon their habits, may nevertheless be of use to some future observer. It is only with the object of pointing out that there are new and unknown species, apparently peculiar to the region, that I have thought it worth while to record our scanty observations. An expedition properly equipped for the capture and study of such animals would assuredly reap a harvest in the South. 10 EDWARD A. WILSON. PINNIPEDIA. (4 Plates.) LEPTONYCHOTES WEDDELLI. Weddell's Seal, or the False Sea-Leopard. (Plates I.-III.) Otarla iveddellU, R. P. Lesson, in Ferussac's Bull. Sci. Nat., vii. (182G), pp. 437-138. LeptonijchoUs weclclelli, Allen, N. Amer. Pinnip. (1880), p. 467 ; Barrett Hamilton, Rep. Mamm. 'Southern Cross' Coll., 1902, p. 17, ihique ritata* ; K. A. Andersson, Wiss. Ergeb. der Schwed. Siidpolar-Exped., Bd. V. 2 (1905), pp. 3-11 ; Brown, Mossman, and Piiie, Voy. 'Scotia' (1906), pp. 129, 227, 340 et alia. Material in the 'Discovery' Collectiok. No. 2, $ , juv. skin and skull. About three months old. Jan. 23, 1903. McMurdo Sound. No. 3, ^ , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. Jan. 1902. Ross Sea. No. 4, $ , ad. skin and skull. Ready to moult. Jan. 1902. Ross Sea. No. 13, ^, ad. skin and skull. Jan. 1902. {Mounted for B.M. Qallery hy Rowland Ward.) McMurdo Sound. No. 32, 9 , juv. skin. In first week. Nov. 27, 1902. McMurdo Sound. No. 33, i , skin and skull. Jan. 1902. McMurdo Sound. No. 34, $ , skin. McMurdo Sound. No. 35, $ , ad. skin and skull. McMurdo Sound. No. 36, ij, ad. skin and skull. McMurdo Sound. No. 38, 9 , ad. skin and skull. Ready to moult. Jan. 1902. McMurdo Sound. No. 40, (J , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. Jan. 1903. McMurdo Sound. No. 41, 9 , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. Jan. 1902. South A'ictoria Land. No. 42, (J , juv. skin and skull. Just born. Nov. 5, 1902. McMurdo Sound. No. 45, (J , juv. skin and skull. Seventeen days old. Nov. 14, 1902. McMurdo Sound. No. 47, 9 ) ad. skin and skull. Late summer coat. Jan. 1902. McMurdo Sound. No. 48, ^ , ad. skin and skull. Beginning to moult. Jan. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 49, (J, ad. skin and skull. Fresh moulted. Feb. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 50, 9 > ad. skin and skull. Fresh moulted. Jan. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 51, skin and skull. In first year. Ready to moult. Jan. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 52, (J , skin and skull. In first year. Freshly moulted. Jan. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 53, 9 , iid- skin and skull. Moulting. South Victoria Land. No. 54, ad. skin and skull. Moult just begun. Jau. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 55, 9 , ad. skin and skull. Moult almost completed. Jau. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 56, (J , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. Jau. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 60, 9 , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. Jan. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 62, ^,ad. skin and skull. Weathered pelt. Ready to moult. Jau. 1902. South Victoria Land. No. 70, ^ , ad. skin and skull. Jan. 1902. Lady Newnes Bay. No. 71, S ! skin and skull. One year old. Jan. 1902. Lady Newnes Bay. No. 72, 9 J skin and skull. One year old. Jan. 1902. Lady Newnes Bay. No. 73, 9 , skin and skull. One year old. Jan. 1902. Lady Newnes Bay. No. 74, skin and skull. One year old. Jan. 1902. Lady Newnes Bay. No. 77, 9 ! skull, with aberrant dentition. McMurdo Sound. No. 78, skull, with much-worn caninef, and incisors. McMurdo Sound. No. 80, (J , skull. McMurdo Sound. No. 81, (J, skull. McMurdo Sound. • Gill is erroneously cited. — F. J. B. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 11 No. 82, 9 , skiill, with worn canines and incisors. McMurdo Sonnd. No.- 84, (J, very young skull. McMurdo Sound. No. 85, 9 , skull. McMurdo Sound. No. 86, 9 , juv. skin and skull. Moulting woolly coat, three weeks old. {Mounted for B.M. Gallery hj Rowland Ward.) Dec. 23, 1903. McMurdo Sound. Collection of Embryos. Twelve embryos from the earliest stages were preserved in spirit by Mr. T. V. Hodgson. Two foetal seals at full term were also preserved in spirit. This collection has been submitted to Dr. Marrett Tims, of Cambridge, for examination, and will be separately reported. Material in the ' Morning's ' Collection. No. 16, M. 4. (J, ad. skin. South Victoria Land. No. 23, M. 47. $ , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. South Victoria Land. No. 24, M. 48. 9 , vix ad. skin and skull. Feb. 1903. McMurdo Sound. No. 25, M. 44. $ , vix ad. skin and skull. McMurdo Sound. Here aud there, scattered far and wide during the summer months in McMurdo Sound, we saw parties of Weddell's Seals lying on the floe. Sometimes one or two only, some- times ten, twenty, thirty, forty or more lying together, not huddled close to one another, but in scattered parties. The whole frozen strait, from the open water at the mouth to the blind end where the ice of a season or two meets the barrier ice of an unknown number of sea.sons, the whole of this vast ice sheet is, in fact, one big scattered rookery of Weddell's Seals (see fig. 10, p. 14). On approaching one of the largest collections lying on the floe, it could be seen that, though almost all were sleeping, there was a good deal of lazy restlessness in their slumber. They were not by any means motionless. One or two would be up and moving, loping along in one direction or another for no very apparent reason. Another would be seen coming out of its hole in the ice, clumsily hitching its shapeless bulk up by degrees, wet and shiny, till at last it emerged on to the floe, where it immediately began a rough dry by rolling over and over on the snowy surface. Then it would lope along a little further and settle off to sleep. We might then walk up to one of the sleepers, and if we approached him up wind no notice would be taken. The eyes are fast closed, and the head is di-awu in, wrinkling up the blubber-lined skin in folds around the neck. The breathing goes on as before, a sudden half opening of the nostrils (sometimes in sleep only one is used), a snorting expiration followed at once by a wide opening of the nostrils and a I'ather less prolonged and noisy inspiration, then the nostrils snap to and remain closed while one can slowly count to twelve or fifteen seconds. No notice whatever is taken of our presence, though we may be only a foot or two from the sleeping Weddell's nose. His eyes remain tight shut, and now he stretches himself and contracts his hind flippers into the most grotesque attitudes ; his back itches, and his hand goes round in the most human fashion to scratch it with the long protruding nail of the second finger. Now his hand itches, and with the other he scratches that. Then he yawns, and gurgles in his throat, still always with his eyes tight shut, aud he may settle ofi" to sleep 12 EDWARD A. WILSON. again. You are not a yard from him, and you may shout to him to wake. He takes no notice whatever, so you shout again. He hears you, and, opening his bloodshot eyes upon you, stares in amazement without making an effort to move (see figs. 8 and 9, p. 12 ; also tig. 21, p. 24). He is probably upon his back, Ijut that does not preA'ent the emptying of his l)ladder, which, as a rule, is his first move, indicative, perhaps, of some slight uneasiness of mind. This increases as he begins to realise yon are something not quite usual, and he slowly rolls over away from your direction, and then stops again to stare and very likely to make a little piping trill in his throat with his mouth shut. It sounds like the tinkling of water in a stone cistern, and you see the movements in his throat.* He is inclined to go to sleep again and forget about you. His large hazel brown eyes no longer show the l:)lood-red canthus as they did before, when you first surprised him, and you walk round to his tail. He objects to this, as a rule, and attempts at once to avoid you by rolling over sideways or slinging his hind quarters round and away from your proximity, his main endeavour being to keep you broadside on. If you insist and manage to touch one of his hind flippers with your foot, he is at once really frightened. He may then either immediately rear half up off the ice at you and bellow with an open mouth, or else he will rapidly roll and shuffle away from you and make off as hard as he can lope for the nearest hole. In so doing he will constantly look round first on one side and then the other to sec whether you are following, or else he will make off clumsily with his head held high up in the air, with both eyes widely open, watching you the while along his back, and in this position he forms a very quaint and characteristic picture. Many a time did we wonder at the complete ignorance of danger exhibited by this seal, so wholly different to the suspicious character of its kindred in the North. Their rookeries were a constant source of interest to us and an ample food supply, from which we drew largely for our needs. The meat was coarse in fibre and very dark, but by no means rank, and although the blubber was uneatable the fiesh was our greatest stand-by, not only as a preventive of scurvy but a certain cure for the disease. Judging' from our experience in passing first through the pack ice north of Ross Sea, and then along the coast of South Victoria Land, Weddell's Seal is to be found only within sight of land or of land ice. We saw no example of it in the pack ice, and in this respect confirmed the late Mr. Hanson's observations on the ' Southern Cross ' Expedition. There can be no doubt now that Weddell's Seal is definitely a coastal species, which never wanders farther from land than it can help, though occasion- ally it is carried by drifting ice to various distant islands, and even across large stretches of sea and open ocean to lands where it can only be considered an accidental visitor. For example, it has been reported from Juan Fernandez, Kerguelen and Heard Islands, and even from New Zealand, where a specimen was stranded on the * Weddell's Seal when quite young gives a " baah " like a sheep. This becomes a roar as the seal grows older, but other and more musical notes are common, such as a moan beginning with a high pitched note and ending with a low one, often like an ice moan ; or a series of plaintive piping notes may be produced, ending on the call note of a bullfinch, or changing to a long shrill whistle which terminates with a grunt or a snort or a gurgle. Fig. S. Weddell's Seal, adult 9 . Pig. 9. Weddell's Seal, adult J . To face y, 12. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 13 beach outside the Heads and was deposited iu a museum at Wanganui. The first specimens placed in the British Museum were procured from the river Santa Cruz on the East coast of Patagonia. Sir James Eoss procured but one specimen from the Antarctic. Kerguelen and Heard Islands seem to be more frequently visited by wandering examples of Leptonychotes than the more Northern lands as one would expect, and Mr. Moseley reported a herd of four hundred of these seals on an outlying island of Kerguelen, and many bones of the " Sea Leopard " on Heard Island. Whether these were really Leptonychotes or Stenorhinchus is still doubtful, and judging only from probabilities one would be inclined to think that they were at any rate not Weddell's Seals. It is certain, however, that one true example of Leptonychotes was taken at Kerguelen. By the " Belgica " Expedition Weddell's Seal was seen abundantly in the Palmer Archipelago, and by the " Southern Cross," and the " Antarctic " (Bull's cruise) all alone the coast of South Victoria Land. Dr. Donald and Mr. Bruce in the Dundee Whalers' cruise saw a few of this species in Graham's Land, and more recently they have been reported as " very numerous " in the South Orkneys, where " over a hundred could often be counted lying on the small raised beach on the west side of Scotia Bay." In the Weddell Sea it is reported by Dr. Pirie and Mr. Brown to have been seen off Coats' Land, 74° S. and 22° W., in March, and again by Dr. Nordenskjold to have been the commonest of all seals iu Louis Philippe Land, where, however, he adds, " it could not be depended on during the winter months ; " and finally it was met with by the German Expedition off Kaiser Wilhelm's Land ; while in Ade'lie Land, it is noted iu Wilkes' and Dumont D'Urville's narratives under various names, and the " Sea Elephant " so constantly mentioned by Wilkes, refers in all probability very often to Weddell's Seal. The normal range of distribution of Leptonychotes is therefore more or less coincident with the coast line of Antarctic lands and not with the distribution of the Antarctic pack ice. Occasional examples may be carried by drifting bergs to the northern limit of ice in the winter months, but as Weddell's Seal is not in any complete sense a migrant, it will not be less rare in these latitudes in the winter than in the summer. The Southern limit of its range is the same for summer and winter, and coincides with the limits of Barrier ice and the coast-line of the so-called Antarctic Continent. Weddell's Seal does not migrate. It is to be found at the southernmost limit of its range throughout the winter months, but is not so much in evidence at that season as it is in the siunmer months. Its southernmost limit throughout the year is decided by the possibility of obtaining food, and not at all by temperature or climate, neither of which seems to affect either it or its supply of food to any considerable extent. The food of Weddell's Seal consists almost entirely of fish, though the beaks of cuttle-fish are often found in the stomach, showing that its diet is not exclusive. Crustaceans also form a small part of its food supply, and, as iu most other 14 EDWAlfD A. WILSON. seals, there is always a large quantity of mud, sand, and stones in the stomach, which appear also in the excreta. This mud is introduced, no doubt, largely by accident in collectino- the fish and crustaceans which inhabit the bottom of the shallow seas. Some of our seamen during the winter months would wait at the seals' blow-holes with a harpoon and line, and with these even the largest Weddell's Seals could be trans- fixed and landed. As they had often been feeding immediately before their capture, it was possible sometimes to take ten or twelve little-damaged fish from the stomach before digestion had commenced. The fish commonly obtained were species of Treinatomus, Notothenia, and Gymnodraco. These seem to be as plentiful in the winter as they are in the summer months, the actual temperature of the sea-water varying l)ut slightly throughout the year. The mere fact that the sea is frozen at the surface does not make much difference to the marine inhabitants. The average temperature of the water in the winter months from April to September is just above the freezing point of sea-water. Consequently there is a uniformity of temperature under water during the winter, which is by no means to l)e found in the air. This not only allows marine life to continue and flourish throughout the year, but it also accounts for the non-migration of Weddell's Seal, and for the fact that, although it is almost as abundant as in the summer in point of numbers, it is not l)y any means so much in evidence. These seals, which may 1)e seen during the summer lying in hundreds on the fast ice, live during the winter almost entirely in the water. They find it far more comfortable to remain in water at a uniform tempera- ture of 28° F. than to expose themselves to temperatures ranging from about zero to - 50° or - 60° F. in the air, where wind and snowdrift would make their existence infinitely less comfortalile even if the temperature itself was less severe. Therefore, apart altogether from the fact that the winter months are dark and prevent seals from being seen at any distance, there is no doubt that they really leave the water very little and only when there is no wind and a moderate degree of cold, conditions not often occurring together at the latitude of our winter quarters. Nevertheless, we are certain that they were still with us in the depth of the winter, not only because the blow-holes were always found open, but because we could hear their signals to one another underneath the ice, and because we could actually bring them out at the end of a harpoon line whenever we cared to wait for them at a blow-hole. Throughout the two winters spent in McMurdo Sound, in lat. 77° 50', the farthest point South at which they have yet l)een recorded at any time of the year, we noted every occurrence of a seal on the ice out of the water. Quite a large number were seen and many more heard during the first winter, when the ice was constantly breaking up in the strait to within a few miles of the ship, even so late as May 5 th, and though fewer were seen in the second winter, when the open water was never nearer the ship than 10 or 12 miles, there was still a considerable number with us. Consequently we knew that the movements of the greater number were influenced by the proximity of open water, but not to the extent of more than a mile or two, and Fig. 10. A Rookery of Weddell's Seals. Pig. 11. Weddell's Seal at its Blow-hole. To face p. 14. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 15 certainly not to anything approaching what might be called a .seasonal migration. Weddell's Seal is therefore not a migrant, and that it is less abundant in the winter months than in the summer is rather the result of a change in its habits, than of any radical change in its local distribution. This is an interesting point in the history of Weddell's Seal, for it marks it oif as the species which has adapted itself more perfectly to Antai'ctic conditions than any of the other Southern forms, and it has a bearing also on its comparative immunity from the attacks of Killer Whales, as will presently be shown. The Killer Whales throughout the year remain quite as far South as the periodical break up of the sea ice will allow. They are to be seen the last thing in the autumnal twilight (March 7th and 9th in 1902) and the first thing in the spring (September 14th in 1902) hunting in herds along the edges of the fast ice, as the Hoes break off and drift away. If, then, Weddell's Seal lived actually at the limiting edges of the fast ice, and was wholly dependent upon the proximity of open water, it would be no more immune from the attacks of the Killer Whale than are the Crab-eater (Lobodon) and Eoss' ( Ommatophoca) Seals, but it is not so dependent upon open water, for it retires as this advances in the summer months, betaking itself to the fast ice which is still unbroken in the sheltered bights and bays along the coast-line. If, on the other hand, it wanders from the actual shores and sheltered bay ice of the coast, it is not to tempt fate in the pack ice, but to take advantage of the peculiarities in the formation of the Ice Barriers which ring round the Antarctic continent, where, diving deep under the frowning ice-cliffs that confront the open water, and coming up a quarter of a mile or more from the actual edge, it reaches the Barrier surface where it dips in a valley to the water-level. Nothing could Ije more surprising, after first scaling the ice-cliffs to reach the snowy surface of Ross' Great Ice Barrier, for example, than to find that the surface gradually dips again into a long valley filled with seals and seal-holes at the level of the water. Weddell's Seal in this way has gone farther than any other species to outwit its enemies and find seclusion without reducing its chances of securing food. In the summer, where it basks on the fast ice it is absolutely safe, and where it breeds it is even more so. Where it feeds it is sometimes open to attack, but by no means always, since it finds food freely in the water beneath the ice on which it basks and breeds. In the winter, knowing that open water means danger, it is safe when the sea is frozen, and by retiring South as storms break up the sea ice, it is safe while the sea is being opened up. That its security is not mei-ely theoretical is strongly evidenced by the almost total absence of all scars in the skins of the * Discovery's ' collection. Nor are these skins exceptional, for it is a very rare thing indeed to find a Weddell's Seal with such scars and ugly wounds as are to be found commonly on the lax'ge majority of Crab-eaters' (Lobodon) skins. I have only on one or two occasions seen scars such 16 EDWARD A. WILSON. as might have resulted from the attack of a Killer Whale, on Weddell's Seal. Some no doubt fall victims to these voracious animals on the coast and at the edges of the unbroken ice, and probably if attacked at all they would have a smaller chance of escaping with wounds only than would the more agile Lohoclon or Stenorhinchus. Some, too, no doubt, get carried off to sea on drifting floes from time to time while sleeping and fall a prey to the Killers in making their way back to shore, but the account I have given above applies to the great majority, and it is in them that habit is adapting itself to circumstances in a way not yet appreciated by the other species. I have mentioned that Weddell's Seal during the winter months spends most of its time in the water beneath the ice. We arrived at this fact in various ways. They were rarely found on the ice in the neighbourhood of their blow-holes or of the tide cracks, yet they kept these blow-holes open, and could be harpooned as they came up to breathe, all through the winter months. In addition to this we had other evidence. Our ears, for instance, convinced us that seals were with us in considerable numbers, though they so rarely showed themselves. Again and again while sitting up at night as meteorological observers, in the silence which reigned when others were asleep, we would hear the gurgling, bubbling, guttural notes of Weddell's Seal beneath the ship, sounds which we knew so well from having often watched the seals as they made them. There was no mistaking them, nor did anyone fail to hear them, and they were not to be confounded in the dead stillness of the night with the contraction of the rigging or the movements of the ice or ship. Sometimes one would hear definite thuds beneath the ship, the seals bumping against the timbers as we had often heard them bump against the ice. At other times, and almost at any time out on the sea-ice, if we stooped to listen with an ear to the floe, we could hear the guttural notes of the seal, or its bubbling trill, or the thud of a seal's head given, we imagined, by way of signal to its fellows. All these noises were carried by the ice to considerable distances, and, as it seemed, formed a simple system of communication between seal and seal through the medium of the solid ice. Sometimes also, as we walked along a frozen crack, we would be arrested by the scrunching noise of seals' teeth opening up new ice in the crack to form a blow-hole. As early spring approached, and we began to go farther afield during the short hours of approaching day, we realised that more seals were leaving the water to bask in the scanty sunlight. If then we followed one of the scars formed across the strait by the re-freezing of a crack, we would find a series of blow-holes and holes for egress and ingress averaging 180 yards apart. About every third hole would be enlarged to allow a seal to leave or enter the water, and round these there was abundant evidence of occupation during the winter months, even if no seal was actually lying there when we approached. To give an example of one of these refrozen cracks, on June 18th we made a list of all the seal holes discoverable in a scar that ran for some miles to the — JJg>*^"'^ -Stjqi- Fig. 12. Weddell's Seal and Young, just eobn. .-^^-^ < Fig. [13. Weddell's Seal and Young. To face p. 10. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 17 westward across McMurdo Sound. The distance in yards is given between the holes : — Hole No. 1 ... ... For egress and ingress. 400 yards to No. 2 ... ... Blow-hole only. 140 yards to No. 3 ... ... Blow-bole only. 200 yards to No. 4 ... ... For egress and ingress, 1 J seal out. 140 yards to No. 5 ... ... For egress and ingress, many signs of occupation. GO yards to No. 6 ... ... Blow-hole only. 150 yards to No. 7 ... ... Blow-hole only. 180 yards to No. 8 ... ... For egress and ingress, 1 J seal out. Tlie depth of water beneath these holes was about 300 fathoms. By such signs as the above, and without actually seeing by any means so large a number of seals as in the summer, we gradually convinced ourselves that there were, nevertheless, a large number upon the spot. Nor were those that we saw or caught of any one age or sex. Some were males and just as many were females ; some were yearlings, but many more, as one would expect, were adults. -All were very fat, and their coats in excellent condition ; perhaps the fattest of all, at any period of the year, were the adult females that we met with in the .spring. The huge animals used to collect in various secluded spots, often many miles from open water, as for example at Pram Point to the south of Cape Armitage, where from twenty to twenty-five miles of solid ice separated them from the nearest open sea. There they lay, entering the water from time to time by boles or cracks amongst the pressure ridges, throughout September and October, waiting for the birth of their young. These began to appear first on October 22ud in 1902, and on October 25th in 1903, at the Pram Point rookery, which was not only the largest but the nearest of all that we met with in McMurdo Sound. If we wandered northwards, along the west coast of Ross Island, we could find here and there, along the tide crack, a group of breeding Weddells. Further still, if we came to Tortoise Rock we found again mothers and young amongst all the pressure ridges around that island, and by the tongue of a glacier, or away amongst the Delbridge Islands, again large numbers of old and young, but nowhere were they so plentiful or so convenient for observation as amongst the ridoes of broken ice about Pram Point. This nursery was visited every day or two as the state of the weather allowed ; and here, on returning from a sledge journey in 1903, 1 found that Hodgson had generously " ear-marked " every infant as it was born l)y attaching a tin label with a number to its hinder flipper, much against the infant's will and often enough with scanty approval from its parent. By means of these labels we were to some extent able to watch the changes in the coat of the infants during the first month of their existence (see figs. 12 and 13, p. 16 ; also figs. 14 and 15, p. 18). At birth the young Weddell's Seal is clothed in a woolly coat of long hair, of a rusty greyish colour, presenting but the faintest indication of any marking (see figs. 16 and 17, p. 20). This woolly coat consists of two varieties of hair, the one 2-8 cm. long, fine, and almost straight; the other shorter, fine, and very curly, so 18 EDWARD A. WILSON. curly, indeed, that iu a hair of 1 • 7 cm. in length there are no less than eight or ten curves or bends. It is worn for the first fortnight, though at the end of this period it has a less woolly appearance and the hair seems shorter. There is also a suggestion of light spots on the sides and darker marks and splashes beneath as in the adult animal. The change iu the character of the coat is due more to the fact of the animal's rapid growth at this time (from 57 inches at birth to 72 inches at the end of a fortnight), than to any actual change in the woolly covering itself ; though it is possible that some of the curly hairs begin to drop out earlier than the straight. At the end of a fortnight, however, a regular moult begins {see fig. 19, p. 22), and observing as strict an order as in the adult, the wool is first shed from the head and flippers, both fore and hind simultaneously ; then running along the mid-line of the back it spreads down the sides and eventually clears the chest and belly. This process occupies a fortnight, so that by the end of the first month of its life the young seal has shed the coat it was born in, and has assumed a very rich and handsomely marked coat of thick, straight, and short hair, thus becoming ^u exact copy in miniature of the most handsomely marked adults, while measuring between 6 and 7 feet from nose to tail instead of about 9 feet {si'i' fig. 20, p. 24). Up to this stage the infant has been wholly dependent upon its mother for susten- ance, and the mother leaving her ofl^spring on the ice has regularly entered the water to supply herself with food. The young seal thus left to itself either sleeps in the sun or crawls under the shelter of a neighbouring hummock. Many of them at this stage succumb to the cold, and it is by no means an uncommon thing to find them dead a day or two after their birth. Their eyes are open at birth, and the involution of the umbilical cord takes several days. The young seal is found at times with the cord intact, attached to the expelled placenta. Presumably the cord is bitten through by the mother, though we did not see this done. The placenta with its membranes is soon demolished by the Skua gulls, which attend in numbers, but it did not appear to strike them that the young seals would form an easy prey. In no case did we see even a dead young seal attacked. Probably the skin proves a difficulty, though the blubber beneath when exposed by ourselves in a skinned seal was very rapidly stripped by these birds. Occasionally we would skin a seal and leave it on the floe to be flenced by Skuas ; and though it was never completely cleaned, the total weight of the skin, which might have to be dragged for some miles upon a sledge to reach the ship, was much reduced. Weddell's Seal suckles her young, and in no case did we see more than one young one born to any seal, upon the ice. Lying upon her side she exposes two nipples in the abdominal region (see Seals, Plate I.), which, though hardly visible when not in use, are erectile organs which become prominent when the young is sucking. The milk is white and creamy and the glands flat and extensive beneath the skin, showing no prominence from without. Not more than two glands and two nipples are developed. The mother seemed to be much attached to her infant, and in some cases would attack us viciously if we attempted to interfere with it. In others she was Pig. 14. Weddell's Seal and Young. Fig. 15. Weddell's Seal, Suckling its Young. To f Me p. 18. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 19 absolutely callous both to the struggles and the bleating cries of her young, with which we were struggling in our eflorts to attach a label to its tail. In the absence of the mother the young one would occasionally make its way to a neighbouring seal, and, if she happened to have a young one too, one might be misled into thinking that she had given birth to the two herself Quite prol)ably this happens sometimes, but we were never quite sure of such a case. At the end of a month, when the young one has moulted its woolly coat and has donned its richly marked coat of hair, it is taught by the mother to enter and leave the water, she the while giving her assistance by pushing from behind ; soon, no doubt, the young seal begins to supply itself to some extent with food. Even after it has learned to enter the water, however, it can often be seen to take mUk from its mother, but on December 23rd the stomach of one that was killed contained onlv fish and isopods. Lactation, therefore, cannot long continue, and probably as a rule the young one becomes wholly independent within six weeks of its birth or a week or two after entering the water. At the end of its first year the young seal is still easily recognisable as a yearling by its small size. Thus at the end of its first winter it reached about two-thirds of the size of the normal adult, and measured between 6 and 7 feet from nose to tail. During the following winter, however, the discrepancy ends, and before two years of its life are out the Weddell's Seal arrives at adolescence. Whether it then breeds or not it is impossible to say ; but, judging from the damaged condition in which one finds many adult males, and even very old ones, from the severe fights which take place in the third week of October and in November and December, I am inclined to think that few males can breed until at least their third or fourth years. The gestation period in the female is as nearly as possible eleven mouths. One may find during the above-mentioned months old males in secluded spots literally covered with open wounds from head to tail. All these wounds are short and comparatively shallow, and most abundant about the head, neck, and genital orifice. The last appears to be the main object of attack in all their battles, and in the majority of cases the region is in a terribly torn condition (see Skins No. 3 and No. 48 in the ' Discovery ' Collection). Neither do the wounds heal with any great rapidity, suppurating sores remaining often for many months. But the wounds received and given by the males in their contests during the rutting season must not be confounded with the far more serious wounds found on males and females alike, though very rarely in Weddell's Seal, as the result of attacks made on them by the Killer Whale. The seal's teeth produce multitudinous wounds, it is true, but none are more than a few inches in length and these seldom deeper than the skin ; the Killer's teeth, on the contrary, produce the most serious rents, often from 12 to 20 inches in length, limited in number, from two to six in parallel rows about two inches and a half apart from one another ; these will often be deeply cut through skin and blubber right into the very flesh, and mainly upon the ventral surface. 20 EDWAED A. WILSON. At the close of the rutting season, which follows directly upon the separation of the young ones from their mothers, it is noticeable how often one may find the bulls in secluded places, to which they have retired with a multitude of open wounds. This bears upon the discovery of dead seals, not only in secluded spots, Init in places which one would have thought were almost inaccessible to them. There can be no doubt, how- ever, that the same instinct which leads a temporarily damaged bull to retire from all company for awhile leads a sick or aged seal which no longer feels equal to the struggle for existence amongst its fellows to retire still further, and to persist in its eftbrts at retiring to the moment of its death. In this way, and in no other, can we account for the discovery of dead seals at a distance of 35 miles inland fr(jm the coast, and on the surface of a glacier no less than 3,000 feet above sea-level. In these cases the carcases were those of Crab-eaters ; again the carcases of four Crab-eaters were found by Mr. Ferrar at the foot of '•' Cathedral Rocks," in the Eoyal Society's Range, 2,000 feet above sea-level, and thirty miles inland. Yet another was found on New Harbour Glacier, 200 feet above sea-level, and twenty miles from the coast. The carcase of a Weddell's Seal was found by Lieutenant Armitage 2,400 feet above sea-level on a similar glacier, and other seal remains at similar heights and distances from the coast. On another sledge journey along the western side of McMurdo Sound two dead Weddell's Seals were found, much weathered, on the tongue of Koettlitz Glacier, some twenty miles from the sea-ice ; and, still further in, an old and battle- scarred male alive, and covered with suppurating sores, more than twenty miles from any of his kind. The instinct of retirement is strong when evil overtakes these animals, and their one idea is to get far away from their fellows. Starvation in such cases must have expedited matters, and the climate being of a kind to preserve the remains, we came upon them, as I have stated, in the course of our various sledge journeys. Weddell's Seal, by its shape and build, is by no means so well fitted for progression on the ice as it is for rapid movement in the water. All its enemies — they cannot be very numerous — are in the water ; its food also is in the water, and its whole energies must be directed to the avoidance of the one and the overtaking of the other. It therefore becomes transformed on entering the water into a rapid fish-like swimmer that can beat the pace of the fishes that form its food. If one watches this seal on a flat surface (and when out of the water it is almost always on sea ice), one notices that the ordinary method of progression is a very laboured " hitching along " of its bulky body a foot or two at a time, the chest lieing used as a fixed point upon which to draw up the remainder of the body ])y the action of the abdominal muscles. lu this way the pubic part of the pelvis becomes in turn the fixed point, and upon it the body is again shot forward. The limbs in this mode of progression are not brought into action at all, indeed the hind limljs, palm to palm, are held in a vertical plane extended backwards with the tail and raised Irom contact with the ice. The fore limbs, also held closely applied to the sides of the chest, cannot even Ije considered of use in keeping the animal on an even keel, for Fig. If). Young Weddf.ll's Seal, just boen. Fig. 17. Young Weddell's Seal, just born. To face p. 2u. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 21 when the trail of a seal ou the snow is examined there may or may not be, on one side or the other, a mark showing where one fore flipper did actually but quite accidentally touch the snow. Under all ordinary conditions, therefore, it is seen that this seal has quite given up the use of its limbs on land or ice, a point in which it differs from several of the other true earless seals, and a point which suggests that a very long period must have elapsed since it enjoyed the power of using its limbs as an ordinary quadruped. I mention below, in connection with Lobodon, that the extremity of fear will revive a method of more rapid progression which closely resembles the canter of a four-legged animal ; but this re-awakening of a power that must have long lain dormant was never once noticed in the case of Leptonychotes. I do not think that the limbs in Leptonychotes were ever seen to be called into play in accelerating the rate of movement, nor was any other method of progression noticed than the hitching, loping, or " looper caterpillar " method of which I have already spoken, a method that reminded one of nothing so much as the progress of the caterpillar of one of the Geometer moths. If pressed to exert itself, this method of progression was not changed, though the movements became very flustered, and then it was a common thing to see the head held high in the air that the pursuer might l)e kept in sight, the seal watching him with wide open eyes along its back and shoulders, instead of turning its head side- ways, first one way and then the other, as is usually the case when the animal is less seriously frightened. In the ordinary course of events it required a considerable amount of interference to disturb the equanimity of a Weddell's Seal. Having no enemies outside the water, it gazes with blank amazement upon man and dog, with difficulty realising that either can have the power to hurt. There was always, however, some risk of its swinging round to bite, and this the dogs soon learned ; for the bite of a full-grown seal was by all means to be avoided ; the seal's movement in this respect is very quick, and the grip being followed by a wrench would certainly tear the flesh from the bones'^ Above all else this seal is an adept at rolling sideways out of reach from danger, but in doing so it is merely following the instinct which forl)ids it to expose its more defenceless extremity towards the enemy. There seems to be no need for it to practise any but the most labour-saving methods of movement out of the water. Having no enemy on the ice when man and his dogs are absent, its needs for travel at the worst of times are not exacting. It lives within reach of some permanent crack or opening in the floe, which may be either a tide crack along the shore, an opening whicli never fails, or a line of weakness running out for miles from some cape or headland. Occasionally, in ice many seasons old, one may find a l)low-hole domed over by the frozen breath, as in fig. 25, p. 38 ; and this may be still in use, though the ice be five or six feet through. Only on a very few occasions have we seen a track prolonged for any distance in the snow. In one exceptional case a track, made by a seal which had apparently lost its way, led fairly straight for about half a mile from one area of pressure ridges across a l)ay of unbroken ice to another area off' a small headland, where c2 22 EDWARD A. WILSON. open cracks were always to be found. During blizzards and heavy weather these cracks o-et completely hidden up in snowdrift, and one may see that the seals experience a certain amount of difhculty in finding them again, if they happen to have been lying out while the storm proceeded. In this case one finds them burrowing into the snow with their noses, and when they discover the crack, in all probability by this time half frozen up and filled with snowdrift, they commence with their teeth to work a hole which shall be big enough to let them through. Their method of enlarging a crack to make a hole has been more than once observed by members of our expedition in McMurdo Sound, and the evidence is well supported by the condition of the teeth in a really old Weddell's Seal ; this is well exemplified in the sample figured, where the canines and incisors are worn to rounded stumps (Seals, PI. III.). The seal, fixing the canines and incisors of his lower jaw in the solid ice, begins to revolve the upper jaw about them, in this way using the teeth of the lower jaw as the fixed point of a centre-bit while those of the upper act as the cutting edge. This has not, to my knowledge, been previously observed, and it explains not only the very worn condition of the teeth, but also how new seal-holes rapidly appear in a narrow, fresh-formed crack in solid sea ice, even within a few hours, sometimes, of its opening. The seal has been known to work in the same way from below, and in this case one cannot but think that there must be sufficient air-space below the ice for breathing. Further examples of the wearing down of the incisors and canines may be seen in Skulls Nos, 47, 48, 78, and 82 of the ' Discovery' Collection. To return to the subject of progression, it is obvious that this power of making holes in the ice for entrance to or exit from the water has almost entirely done away with the necessity for any but the most perfunctory methods of progression on ice and land. The hind flippers certainly are never used at all except when the seal is in* the water, and there is no tendency whatever under any conditions to attempt to bring them forward in progression. That there is still free and varied movement in every joint of the hind limb is, however, obvious from the fantastic positions that it assumes when the animal, as he so often does, stretches himself, or when he brings an irritable hind limb forward to be slowly and deliberately scratched by the long nails of the fore limb. The quaint attitudes thus exhibited are exemplified in several of the accompanying illustrations. It is interesting to note in this connection, too, that although when lying on the ice these seals are often in a very irritable condition as regards their skin, a repeated and careful search failed to reveal any external parasites at all. It would appear that the animal is quite free from anything of the kind, and one is led to conjecture that the constant irritation as the animals lie sleeping in the sun, is due to the effect of evaporation on the salt water in their hair. It may be that the crystallisation of the salt, and the peculiar eff'ect which drying has upon the hair itself, may cause the irritation, for the hair, instead of lying ffat against the skin as it does when wet, takes Fig. 18. Young Weddell's Seal, 10 days old. Fin. 19. YouxG Weddell's Seal, in third week, showing commencement ok moult on the siiouldees. Tu face p. 22. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 23 up a recurved form as it dries, and roughens the whole coat by gradually standing up and curling backwards. This is a marked feature in the hair of Weddell's Seal, and was very noticeable in the various uses to which the dried skin was put upon the .ship, such as the making of slippers, knife sheaths, gaiters, and so on ; for when dry there was a good wire-haired furry skin, but no sooner was the hair exposed to moisture than the sleek and shiny texture of the wet seal was immediately reproduced. This change in drying, particularly from salt water, may have much to do with the apparent irritability of the skin of the basking seal. Of the use of the fore limb when out of water there is little more to be said. The claws are not used offensively when the animal is disturbed to the same extent that they are in Phoca vitulina, for example. In the latter the whole action is that of a cat, but Weddell's Seal has not the same power that is possessed by Phoca vitulina, or Ph. fcetida, or even Halichcerus, of bringing the fore limb right forward from the shoulder. The limb is more perfectly webbed, and the web is much more closely con- tinuous with the skin of the body than in these species, that is to say, there is in Leptonychotes less of an arm or wrist than in these northern seals. This being so, one would expect that the nails would have lost something of their efficiency and of their size, but this is not the case. They are comparatively long and well formed, and reach well beyond the fleshy part of the digits. In the hinder limb the nails are not so well grown, nor are they in any sense functional. The nails of the fore limb, on the other hand, are, as I have said, constantly in use for scratching. In the infant the fore limbs are far more constantly brought forward than they are in the adult, and in this way the young Leptonychotes approximates to the true Phocinse and Halichoerus. In the fore limb there is free power of flexion and extension as well as of abduction in all the digits, and the same may he seen in the hinder limbs. There is, moreover, a very remarkable amount of precision in the power of directing the touch, and this is seen in the accuracy with which the apparently clumsy limb brings a single nail to bear on the irritable spot, whether it be on the face or head, on the breast or abdomen, or on the other flippers either Itefore or behind. All these remarks deal with Weddell's Seal on land, or rather on ice and snow. Certainly it is the most land-frequenting of all the Antarctic seals, indeed, it is never to be found in any numbers away from the actual shore, or, at any rate, from fast ice. This littoral habit, however, is not a primitive one retained by Weddell's Seal alone, whilst others, its near relations, have taken to the open seas ; it is a habit of secondary development, into which the animal has fallen in these regions through a wish to shun the enemies that molest it in the open sea. Few seals are more fully adapted to a pelagic life than Leptonychotes, and every feature of the animal helps to support this view, especially if we watcli first the easy motion of a seal in the water, its clumsy eftbrts to land, and the still more clumsy gait that follows when at last the landing is effected. When there has been no need for haste a seal has Ijeen seen to make ten unsuccessful eftbrts tr> land on ice which was 24 EDWARD A. "WILSON. not 6 inches above the water-level. Certainly .such clumsiness is not quite usual, hut one seldom sees less than two or three unfruitful efforts before the ungainly body is, sufficiently out of water to hitch itself fairly on to the ice. In this effort the fore limbs are used, but to no great purpose, and the movements are all rather suggestive of those of a man tied up in a sack trying to get out of water on to land. The seal swims mainly by the sinuous motion of its body, and in this move- ment the hind flippers are of the greatest service, forming a fish tail in the vertical plane when held, as they usually are, palm to palm, and a powerful horizontal tiuke as in a whale, when there is necessity for rising or sinking in the water. The fore flippers are probably of more use in directing the course of the animal than in propelling it, and they must be increased nearer to the size of the sea lion's fins before they can be of very great service for swimming. Of the colouring of Leptonychotes something still remains to be said.* The collection at present under consideration contains thirty-five skins, covering all ages and conditions of moult in both sexes. It is natural that in such a series there should be a certain amount of variation. Weddell's Seal is to be found moulting at any time during the summer months, from the third week in November even to the end of March, for an adult seal has been observed just commencing to moult on the 19th of the latter month. The order or sequence of parts from which the old hair is shed is much the same for Leptonychotes and Lohodon. Beginning in a line down the centre of the back from head to tail, the moult is almost simultaneous upon the head and upper neck, shoulders, fore and hind liippers. The old hair then begins to fall from all the lower parts — neck, chest and abdomen — while the last remnants of the old bleached hair are to be found on the sides of the body. The chancre in colour thus brought about is often most remarkable. The old hair is a pale rusty gray where it once was black or dark gray, and the spots and splashes of wdiite and silver gray, which appear in rich contrast with the black in the new coat, are disclosed by the falling of a rather dirty-looking whitish hair which is hardly whiter than the rusty gray which covered up the black. Yet this seal never looks white in the weathered coat, as does Lobodon ; rather it looks a dingy brown with inconspicuous markings. The weathered adult coat prepared to moult at any minute can be well seen in the following skins Nos. 4, 38, 47, 51, and 62 of the ' Discovery ' collection. The commencement of the moult is to be seen in skins Nos. 3 and 54 ; while the stage is rather more advanced in Nos. 23, 25, 48, 53, 60, 72, and 74. In Nos. 41, 55, and 73 the moult is almost completed, and quite completed in Nos. 49 and 50. In many of these the contrast between the old bleached and weathered hair, and the rich black and gray and pure silvery white of the new hair is very striking ; markings * In the Report on the ' Southern Cross ' collections, tlie skins of tlio four species of Antarctic Seals were described, with coloured illustrations, by the Author of this paper. Fig. 20. Young Weddell's Seal, two months old. Pig. 21. Weddell's Seal, adult. Tojacep. 24. WEDDELL'S SEAL. 25 which appear dim and shadowy and ill-defined in the old coat, come out with startling contrast in the new. The summer sun undoubtedly plays the greater part in the bleaching, much more than the weathering of the preceding winter months. Weddell's Seal does not appear to shun the water while moulting. These changes in coat are, however, distinct from differences due to individual variation. The skins of the present collection may be roughly divided into three types, not one of which is confined to any particular age, sex or locality. I. The type in winch the markings of black, white, and intermediate gray are large, bold, and in striking colour contrast. Of such are skins Nos. 35, 47, 49, 56, and 74. II. The type in which the markings are all small and narrow, but very al;)undant and distinct, the white and black well contrasted. Of such are skins Nos. 40, 51, and 52. III. The type in which the markings are few and indistinct ; and of such are skins Nos. 36, 50, 62, and 72. Variations in size are exceedingly common, but may all ])e considered as the result of differing age, not sex. Such differences are exemplified in the measurements of the followincr skins : — No. 42, just born, in first week No. 45, in second week No. 86, three weeks old No. 2, about third month No. 51, at end of first year No. 53, in third year probably No. 3, fully adult Nuse tip to fail tip. 4 ft. 10 ins. 5 ft. 11 ins. (1 ft. 2 ins. 6 ft. 0 ins. G ft. 0 ins. 7 ft. 5 ins. 1(1 ft. 0 ins. In the colouring of the adult Weddell's Seal, perhaps the most typical characteristic is that the palest area is not ventral and median, but lateral or ventro-lateral. The dorsum is typically black ; then comes a dorso-lateral area which is black with a few white streaks or splashes ; then a lateral area in which the white blotches are larger and more abundant ; then a ventro-lateral area in which the white is predominant, and very few darker markings are to be seen ; and lastly, the median ventral area is gray with white spots and streaks or splashes. The tail is, dorsally, the blackest part of all, but has a narrow white border which is constant. The gray colour of the head starts round the nostrils and passes backwards to surround the eyes, except for a white superciliary spot over each eye. The gray of the head spreads backwards to include the shoulders and fore flippers, but on the shoulders there are often short and discreet white streaks. The fore flippers are blackish gray above, but whitish on the radial border and ])eneath ; the hind flippers blackish gray above with whitish tibial border, but blackening towards the tips of the digits, which are bordered with a whitish edge, and where the nails are inserted, marked by a few white hairs. The nails are black, as also are the twisted facial bristles in the adult. These show no twist or wave in the young of the first few months. The hair at the corners of the mouth and at the excretory orifices is stained a deep chestnut brown. 26 EDWARD A. WILSON. Of the diseases of the Antarctic seals there is )jut little to be said. They are not exempt from the ravages of unfriendly bacteria, for one may see their wounds freely suppurating, and in more than one case the eyes both of adult and young have been seen streaming with pus. They are also apparently subject to uric acid troubles, for the kidney tubules have been found in one or two cases occujjied completely by renal calculi. In the coronary arteries also, very definite atheromatous deposits may occasionally be found. STENORHINCHUS LEPTONYX. The Sea-Leopard. Phoca leptonyx, de Blainville, Journ. de Physique, etc., t. XCI. (1820), pp. 288-289 and 297-298. Stenorhinchus leptonyx, F. Cuvler, Diet. Sci. Nat., XXXIX. (1826), p. 549. Ogmorhmus leptonyx, Peters, Monatsb. k. Akad., Berlin (1875), p. 393 ; Barrett-Hamilton, Rep. ' Southern Cross' (1902), p. 25, ihiqm citata ; K. A. Andersson, Wiss. Ergeb. der Schwed. Siidpolar-Esped., Bd. V. 2 (1905), pp. 11-13. Stenorhynchus leptonyx, Brown, Mossman, and Pirie, Toy. ' Scotia,' (1902), pp. 122, 222, 227. Material in the 'Discovery's' Collection. No. Ot, 9 , ad. skin and skull. Jan. 7, 1902. Pack ice, Ross Sea, 68° S. 175^ E. {Mounted for the B. 31. Gallery by Rowland Ward.) Material in the ' Morning's ' Collection. No. 18, M. 7. 9, ad. skin. Dec. 28, 1902. Pack ice, Ross Sea, 68° 5.5' S. 175" 26' E. No. 65, M. 30. i , ad. skin and skull. Jan. 1904. Pack ice, Ross Sea, 68° S. 173° E. No. 66, M. 27. 9 , ad. sk. Jan. 1904. Pack ice, Ross Sea, 69° S. 178° E. For the history of the type specimens, and of the earliest descriptions of this seal, I must refer my readers to the account given by Captain Barrett Hamilton under Ogmorhinus in the Report on the 'Southern Cro.ss' Collections (pp. 25-27). The synonomy there given also covers the matter so completely that I could but quote the paragraph word for word. I venture in this paper, however, to return to Stenorhinchus, a name which is certainly open to objection, but not perhaps to so much as are Ogmorhinus and Stenorhynchus, while it is certainly preferable to Hydrurga. Stenorhinchus, then, has a very extensive range, not only far to the south and within the Antarctic Circle, l)ut also throughout the Southern temperate regions. It has been recorded, for example, from the Falklands, Campbell Island, Desolation Island, New Georgia, Lord Howe Island, Tasmania, Cape Horn, New South Wales, Patagonia, Kerguelen, and various parts of the coast of New Zealand (Port Nicholson and Wellington Harbour, the Waikato and Wanganui rivers), where Sir James Hector says it is a common Init a solitary animal. " It frequently comes on shore, and, notwithstanding its feeble powers of locomotion, scrambles far l)ack into the bush in flat country, and occasionally ascends rivers for a long distance." Farther south, Captain Larsen reported it from Louis Philippe Land in November, ]Mr. Bruce from Graham's Land, and ]\lr. Borchgrevink from Robertson Bay in September. Sir Pig. 21a. Adult Weddell's Seal Travelling os Ice. Pig. 21b. Young Weddell's Seal in the Pirst Week. To faix page 26 THE SEA-LEOPARD. 27 James Ross obtained it iu the Antarctic pack-ice to the north of Ross Sea, as also did the ' Southern Cross ' and the ' Belgica ' later on. More recently it has been reported by the Scottish Expedition from the South Orkneys, and by the Swedish Expedition from South Georgia, and from 65° 19' S. lat. iu 56° 48' W. loug. In the ' Discovery,' during our passage through tlie pack to the north of Ross Sea in January, we saw one example only, which we procured (fig. 22, p. 28). It was an adult female, and in full milk, l)ut we saw no sign of a young one. On our homeward voyage we again saw two examples in loose and disintegrating pack-ice, on March 1st, quite close to the Balleny Islands. The ' Morning ' procured three examples also in the Ross Sea pack, about 68° and 69° S. lat. in 173° and 178° E. long. The identity of this seal has, I think, on many occasions been mistaken. Mr. Borchgrevink seems to have confused the two so-called Leopard Seals, and quite habitually speaks of the Sea Leopard [Stenorhinchus leptonyx) when giving an excellent description of Leptonychotes wedddli Mr. Bruce also appears to have made the same mistake in Graham's Land. Stenorhiyichus is a solitary animal,* and the seals which he saw in " a great host, moaning loudly," must surely have been Weddell's Seals. I can also understand Dr. Donald's note that " the females of the larger species were larger than the males " only by believing that the animals he speaks of were Weddell's Seals. It is with all due deference that I urge such criticisms, but it is well to correct, if possible, misapprehensions which have arisen from these accounts, for Stenorhinchus, above all things, is in the Antarctic ice a widely scattered species, not found in large herds, and not " one of the two best-represented seals in the pack-ice near Victoria Land," as Mr. Borchgrevink has stated ; nor can it be said to breed in Robertson Bay, except possibly on very rare occasions. Leptonychotes, on the other hand, does all these things, and it is of Leptonychotes that they should rightly have been recorded. Mr. Moseley's note of a herd of 400 of these animals at Kerguelen Island is perhaps less open to doubt. It is more probable, however, that this was a collection of Stenoi'hinchus than oi Leptonychotes. It is just possible that it was neither, although both are known to have occurred there. But it may here be pointed out that we know practically nothing of the breeding habits of Stenorhinchus, and that it may collect for the purpose of breeding in the out- lying islands of such places as Kerguelen. It seems occasionally to produce its young in the Antarctic pack ice, or in the neighbourhood of Antarctic lands, but no account has ever yet been given of anything approaching an undoubted ' rookery ' in the Antarctic. The ' Southern Cross ' Expedition claimed to have found it breeding in Robertson Bay, but the animal instanced seems really to have been Leptonychotes, which bred freely there. The contour of Stenorhinchus, as may be judged from various photographs that * Compare also Dr. Anderssou's account of this animal in South Georgia : " Es kara vor, das wir dort bis zu 10 Stuck auf demselben Strande nicht weit von einander salien, aber sie schienen in keiner Weise sich um einander zu kiimmeni, so dass er keinesfalls als ein geselliges Tier zu bezeicbnen ist." Op. cit., p. 11. 28 EDWARD A. AVILSON. have been published, notably an excellent one by Mr. Bernacchi in his narrative of the 'Southern Cross ' Expedition, and in the 'Southern Cross' Eeport (p. 26), is markedly different to all the other species. The head is disproportionately large for the rest of the body, and the power of the neck is immense. The rest of the animal tails off in a more snake-like fashion than in any other of the Southern seals, suggesting great power and rapidity of movement under water. The total length from nose to tail tip of the four specimens in our collection is respectively 1-8 inches in No. 64, 106 inches in No. 65, 131 inches in No. 66, and 107 in No. 18. These figures, however, do not give a true idea of the size to which the animal may grow, for Sir James Ross captured one with a length of 144 inches. The proportions of the animal will be better understood by the following measurements, which were in each case taken in the Hesh, and it may here be noted that the example recently mounted in the British Museum Gallery (No. 64 of the ' Discovery ' collection), was modelled carefully to these figures, so that its form represents as nearly as possible the proportions of life: — Nose to tail tip Diameter, taken with callipers from side to side : — At a point 12 inches behind the nose 24 j» )i 30 J 48 ) 00 ? T9 ,, i ^ » 84 . 96 ) 108 f 128 inches. 11 inches. 17* 29 23 20 19i 10 10 13 The end of the fore flipper, lying along the side, was 02i inches from the nose. At a point 90 inches from the nose was the smallest diameter of the belly, \'> inches. The following dimensions were taken by Dr. Davidson from examples captured on the ' Morning,' : — Length from tip of nose to end of tail ... Greatest girth Length of fore flipper Breadth ,, „ Length of hind flipper Spread „ „ Girth under the fore flippers Girth above the tail No. 65 rf. No. 66 ? . No. 18 9 Inches. Inches. Inches. 100 131 107 57 75i — 22 29i 29^- 13 16 14" 21 24 21 22 26 27 J 501 37" In the stomach of the specimen which we procured were the remains, almost a complete skin, of an Emperor penguin, 3 feet in lengtli. In the stomach of one taken by Dr. Davidson, on the ' Morning,' were the remains of a young Weddell's Seal. Fish, cephalopods and penguins seem to form its chief diet in the Antarctic seas, and in one instance 28lbs. of fish are reported to have been taken from the stomach of a single animal. On the ice Hoes it seems to be e\eu less active than Weddell's To face p. 28, THE SEA-LEOPARD. 29 Seal * ; but whereas iu the latter this is due to excessive fatness, in the former it seems to result from the disproportionate weight of the head and shoulders. Nor are these capable of being reared high off the ice, as they are in the case of the Sea Elephant, whose fore flippers are still of some service as a support to the massive head and shoulders. In Stenorhinchus the flippers, both hind and fore, are essentially swimmino- organs, and to this end are long and powerful, with the first and fifth digits of the hind flippers broadly palmated at the tips beyond the nails, though all the flippers, both hind and fore, are still completely clothed with hair. The nails are fairly well developed in the fore limbs, the first alone being rudimentary, the other four reaching well beyond the edge of each digit. In the hind limb the nails of the first and fifth are small and rudimentary, those of the second and fourth well formed and reaching to the edoe of the digits, while that of the third reaches well beyond. Stenorhinchus is not so immune from the attacks of the Killer Whales as one might infer from its size and strength. It has been reported in one case, a young animal it is true, to have Jjeen seen very badly torn by wounds of the typical character. No. 18 of our own collection has an extensive healed scar upon the crown of the head, but of a shape which suggests rather damage done by movino- ice floes than by a Killer Whale. Stenorhinchus is at once to be distinguished from all other seals by its cheek teeth, which are not only larger and more powerful than those of any other Antarctic form, but shaped each like a trident, with three long pointed cusps standing vertically to the long axis of the jaws. The points of the two outer cusps in each tooth are curved slightly towards the longer central one, which has itself also a slight curve backwards. The typical marking of the skin of this seal has been already detailed in the ' Southern Cross ' report, and I have only here to add that the orange tint which characterises the great majority of Museum seal skins, not only of this, but of all the Antarctic species, is only less misleading in this case than in any of the other forms, since the living Stenorhinchus has in some cases a tawny tint, characterisin o- the weathered coat. This, when shed, is replaced by hair of as pure a grey as occurs in any other of the seals. The younger animals appear to be of a more silvery grey than the older. The orange tint, which is so very marked a feature in the majority of Museum seal skins, particularly of the earlier specimens, is, in the case of Lobodon, Leptonychotes, and Ommatophoca, wholly misleading, not one of them having anythino- approaching it in life. It results chiefly from the gradual absorption of disorganised fat into the hair, fat which, in life, is almost colourless, but becomes dark yellow after death and in the course of time. The only tendency to a brown colouration in the living Antarctic seals is iu the hair of the weathered coats ; but this is always of a very moderate tone, and never aj^proaches orange yellow ; it should rather be described as a brownish bufi" in Lohodon, and a dusky brown in all the others. * See, however, Voy. of ' Scotia,' ojj. vit., p. 222, where Dr. Pirie writes that this seal " has been seen to come up alongside a floe on which the penguins were resting, seize one in its huge jaws, and sweep down again with its prey." 30 EDWARD A. WILSON. There appears to 1)0 a good deal of individual variation in the extent and distri- bution of the pigmentation in the hair of Stenorhinchus. The four skins in the ' Discovery ' and ' Morning ' colleftion.s, although having in each case the main distinctive character, are strikingly different in this respect. No. 66, for example, is an exceedingly handsome skin, richly marked with jet Iduck and dark grey, particularly upon the throat, shoulders, flanks and hind ilippers. These are the usual areas upon which the dark markings appear, or, rather, one should say remain ; for the character of the marking in all of the Antarctic seals is such that one may more easily consider it brought about by the greater or lesser confluence of white spots upon a dark ground. This is the case even in Lobodon, where the white spots are confluent to such an extent that in many cases no trace of the ground colour is left. This is the case also, and to a considerable extent, iu Stenorhinchus and Leptonychotes. It is less apparent in Ommatophoca. The result of the partial confluence of white spots in young examples of Lobodon, and iu all examples of Stenorhinchus, is that rings, more or less complete, of pigmented hair remain to form the characteristic dappling on certain areas, these being constant in each case. The first part of the body to be wholly whitened is the abdomen and the throat, the last the Ijack and dorsal aspects of the limbs and sides of the head. In No. 66 the pigmentation is much in excess of the average, so that there are even black markings remaining on the abdomen, and the throat is very richly marked. For descriptive purposes, the .skin of Stenorhinchus may be conveniently divided into a dorsal, a ventral and an intermediate lateral area. The first is dark grey with black markings, the second is pale with no marking as a rule, the third is grey, freely spotted with both black and white. Specimen No. 65 is a richly marked skin, but of a different type to No. 66. The dorsal area is dark grey but with multitudinous and small black markings, the lateral area freely spotted with white and black, and the ventral area, particularly the throat, but slightly marked with black. No. 18 is again a third type, with few and indistinct markings, being of a rather dirty grey colour dorsally and ventrally, and only a pale grey below ; yet there is no doubt, even iu this poorly-marked skin, that the distribution and appearance of the darker markings is characteristic of Stenorhinchus. It is a significant fact that in the ten skulls of Stenorhinchus now in the British Museum, there is to be found no variation at all in respect of the number, either of the incisors or of the cheek teeth. In each case the formula is strictly Stenorhinchine, i.?zi2c,!^P.c.='-^ 2—2 1—1 5—5. This uniformity in a species of the true seals is quite unusual. Lobodon car- cinojjhagus, Phoca greenlandica, and Stenorhinchus leptonyx are the only species in which I have been unable to discover aberrant dental formulae. This point is obviously connected with efficiency from a functional point of view, for the teeth are strong and well adapted to the food upon which their owners live, although they are in each case also highly specialised in form. 31 LOBODON CARCINOPHAGUS. The White Antarctic or Crab-eating Seal. Phoca carcinophaga, Jacqniiiot and Pucberan, Zool. Atlas Voy. Pole Sud., pi. X., Xa. (1842-1853). Lobodon carcinopharius, J. E. Gray, Zool. Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Vol. I., Mamm. (1844), pp. 5, 6. Pis. I., II. ; Barrett Hamilton, Rep. ' South. Cross' Coll. (1902), p. oo, ibuiue citata ; Brown, Mossman, and Pirie, Voy. 'Scotia,' (I'JOG), p. 122. Lobodon carcinophaga, K. A. Audersson, Wiss. Ergeb. der Schwed. Siidpolar-Exped. Bd. V. 2 (1905), pp. 13-16. List of Mateeial in the 'Discovery's' Collection. No. 5, (J , adult skin and skuil. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 6, 9 , adult skin and skiill. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. K, (J , adult skill and broken skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 9, ^ , adult skin and broken skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 10, 9 , adult skin and broken skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 28, 9 , adult skin and skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. .Ross Sea. No. 29, adult skin and skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 30, 9 , adult skin and skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 39, 9 , adult skin and skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. No. 12, S . iid. skin and skull. January, 1902. Pack ice. Ross Sea. CT S. 178' E. {Mounted for B. 31. Gallery by Rowland Ward.) No. 75, ad. skull. McMurdo Sound. No. 79, ^/ 38 ^ EDWARD A. WILSON. It must be understood therefore that in the least mottled examples the dark brown colour ajopears only on the flippers hind and fore, and in the shape of a few more or less perfect rings on the head, tail, flanks, and shoulders. Plate IV., and Fig. 3 of Plate V. in the ' Southern Cross ' Report, which are from coloured drawings of my own, represent sufficiently the points to which I have here referred, and I have not deemed it necessary to repeat them. These two plates also illustrate the changes which this seal undergoes in the course of the ensuing year. The whole coat changes, gradually during the winter months, and much more rapidly during the summer, to a creamy whiteness by bleaching, while the dark brown ring-marks and the flippers also fade to a pale and often hardly discernible ])uff. I speak still only of the young adults. The result of this bleaching is to produce a creamy-coloured seal, which has in conse- quence been named the " White" Antarctic Seal. It is applicable only to the bleached and weathered coat of summer, which is once more shed in January for the darker brown. In Plate V. of the ' Southern Cross ' Report are shown first the bleached and weathered hinder quarters of a young adult in Fig. 1, then the moult commenced in Fig. 2, and lastly the new coat in Fig. 3. As age advances, and particularly in the males, the development of the paler shades becomes more and more complete, until in advanced age there is no longer any trace to be found of the dark brown under-colour, and neither ring-marks nor mottling make their appearance either in the new coat or the old. Thus one may describe the most common phase of all as a seal of uniformly pale colouring, creamy white in the weathered coat, and brownish grey with silvery tones throughout in the newly moulted animal. The following analysis of the skins in the present collection will give some idea of the comparative frequency of the various phases : — i. White or buff skms with no markings, Nos. 5, G, 7, 8, i), 10, 11, l.j, 20, 21, 22, 30, 57, 5S, 01, fiS. ii. Skin.s with some faint markings, Nos. 17, 29, 5!) (the last with marks ou hind quarters only). iii. Skins with distinct and extensive markings, Nos. 19, 28, 39. Skill No. 39 is exceptionally handsome ; along tlie top of the head and l)ack it is silver-grey, but along the sides, from the face to the flanks, the white spots or splashes are distinct from one another, leaving more or less chocolate-brown in the form of ring marks Ijetween them. The fore and hind flijjpers are chocolate-brown, and the tail brown spotted with white. It is the confluence of the white spots which causes the loss of the characteristic dappling. The whiskers are twisted, each on its own axis, as is the ease with all the Antarctic seals. Each bristle is white with the terminal third black. The iris is dark brown, and the reflex to be seen in the vertical slit-like pupil when it opens to a lozenge shape is a brilliant emerald green. If the hair of Lohodon is examined it is found to be rather more than half an inch in length, quite straight and tapering finely to a point after coming to its greatest thickness about a quarter of its length from the root. In the hairs of an old white seal no tra(;e of pigment oranules can Ite found. Pig. 25. Domed Blow-hole op Weddell's Seal, see p. 21. MID-DORSAL LtWC . MID-VENTRAL LINT . Fig. 26. Scabs in Skin of Lobodon (J nat. size), see p. 40. To /nee p. 'Sa No. 59 63 61 58 57 76 11 18 20 11 IG 18-1 13 17 25 9 17 lej 10 17i 23 H 18f 18 9 J 17i 21 91 17 17 THE CRAB-EATIXG SEAL. 39 The following table gives measurements, taken in the Hcsh, of specimens collected by Dr. Davidson, on the ' Morning ' :— Nose to Greatest Length of Breadth of Length of Spread of Sex. tail, girth, foreflipper, foreflipper, hindflipper, hindfiipper, in inches. in inches. in inches. in inches. in inches. in inches. ^ 80 53 16 9 93 56|- 16