. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. VHE CRSHTED, OP. BLADDER-XOSE HEAL. 23) is the fiercest luul most (Uingerous, as the Eskimo know to their cost in attacking it i'roni their kayaks, [t does not hesitate to return an assault, and the crest, it is said, aflbrds some protection from wounds inflicted by the chilj. These brutes light ferociously among themselves, and the roaring during such ice-battles, Ln the stili Arctic regions, is said to be audible four miles off. The bo-called crest, hood, or bladder, is in reality nothing of the sort, but only a peculiar enliu'geraent of
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. VHE CRSHTED, OP. BLADDER-XOSE HEAL. 23) is the fiercest luul most (Uingerous, as the Eskimo know to their cost in attacking it i'roni their kayaks, [t does not hesitate to return an assault, and the crest, it is said, aflbrds some protection from wounds inflicted by the chilj. These brutes light ferociously among themselves, and the roaring during such ice-battles, Ln the stili Arctic regions, is said to be audible four miles off. The bo-called crest, hood, or bladder, is in reality nothing of the sort, but only a peculiar enliu'geraent of the nasal passages, more particularly develoj)ed in the old animals of both sexes. The configm-ation of the head of this creature is hemispherical, and proportionally broad and short. The bony ii;n ts of tlic snout, and the cartilaginous septum of the nose and nostrils generally, are so formed as to allow ^iiat of these parts. That is to say, the two passages of the nostrils are^ in the full-grown animal, e\ciMilini;ly capacious fleshy tunnels. CRESTED SEAL. From j'outh onwards, this region acquires prominence, and, paitly through habit and growth of the structures in later life, the animal when roused inflates, by compression of the muscles of upi)6i--]ip and nose, the cavities in question, so much so as to produce the expansion on the forehead which has given rise to its specific soubriquet. All engi-avings, even our own, represent this stiiicture as reaching fai-ther back on the head than the absolute anatomical conformation of the parts warrants, but in the live animal the skin of the head rearwards to some extent swells in unison with the puffed nostril, and hence to a certain degree simulates a hood or crest. Some sealers regard the so-called bladder as an air i-eservoir for buoyancy, an idea totally at variance with its true nature. The teeth of this genus are peculiar, the incisors being fewer in number. The formula is—Incisors, jEi; canines, j^i; premol
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