. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. 402 THE CRESTED SEAL. It does not appear to be a very large animal, as the average length of the largest speci- mens is scarcely ten feet. Around the largest part of the body, the circumference measures nearly six feet and a half, round the root of the tail about two feet three inches, and round the neck barely two feet. It was recorded by Captain Weddell to have been seen off the South Orkneys. Some specimens in the British Museum were taken off the eastern coast of Polynesia. As Jar as
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. 402 THE CRESTED SEAL. It does not appear to be a very large animal, as the average length of the largest speci- mens is scarcely ten feet. Around the largest part of the body, the circumference measures nearly six feet and a half, round the root of the tail about two feet three inches, and round the neck barely two feet. It was recorded by Captain Weddell to have been seen off the South Orkneys. Some specimens in the British Museum were taken off the eastern coast of Polynesia. As Jar as is yet known, these animals are only found in the Southern hemisphei'e. 'I'm: Crested Seal is a very curious animal, being chiefly remarkable for the singular structure to which it is indebted for its title. The head of the Crested Seal is broad, especially across the cranial region, and the muzzle is very short in comparison with that of the preceding animal. The teeth are also rather. i RESTED SEAL.—Cyslcj)/u>ra crutata. remarkable. The wonderful protuberance which decorates The head of this species with a projecting cresl is confined to the adull males, and even in them is not always conspicuously elevated. It is slightly represented in the figure. In the females and the young of both sexes it is hardly perceptible. Prom the muzzle arises a cartilaginous crest, which rises abruptly over the head to the height of six or seven inches, and is keel-shaped in the middle. This cresl seems to support the hood-like sac or cowl which covers the head, and is nothing but an extraordinary develop- ment of the septum of the nose, the true nostril opening at each side of it by oblong Assures. The sac is covered with short brown hair, and as it can be inflated or allowed to collapse at the pleasure of the owner, it presents a very grotesque sight. The real object of this appendage is not known. Some writers lean to the opinion that it is intended to aid in some manner the sense of sm
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