History of North American pinnipeds, a monograph of the walruses, sea-lions, sea-bears and seals of North America . gesto a uniform brownish, or more or less silvery-gray, lighter onthe sides, and whitish below. DeKay describes the male as having the Head small in pro-portion to the body, with a moveable muscular bag on its sum-mit, extending from the muzzle to about five inches behind theeyes, and in certain positions nearly covering the internal sac is twelve inches long, and, when fully distended, nineinches high, covered with short hairs, and with slight trans-verse wrinkles. T
History of North American pinnipeds, a monograph of the walruses, sea-lions, sea-bears and seals of North America . gesto a uniform brownish, or more or less silvery-gray, lighter onthe sides, and whitish below. DeKay describes the male as having the Head small in pro-portion to the body, with a moveable muscular bag on its sum-mit, extending from the muzzle to about five inches behind theeyes, and in certain positions nearly covering the internal sac is twelve inches long, and, when fully distended, nineinches high, covered with short hairs, and with slight trans-verse wrinkles. The nostrils are round, each two inches in di-ameter, and pierced in the anterior part of this hood. Whenthe hood or nasal sac is not inflated, the septum nasi can bedistinctly felt, elevated into a ridge about six inches high. . .Nasal sac bright brown or rufous. * * New York Zoology, pt. i, pp. 55, 56. EXTERNAL CHARACTERS. 727 Nearly all writers, from Fabricius to the present time, speakof the hood as a sexual character. Mr. Carroll, whose famili-arity with the species should render him an authority on this. point, says distinctly: The female of this species has no hoodon the head.* Mr. Brown, however, observes: It is assertedby the sealers that this bladder is a sexual mark, and is notfound on the female. But he adds: I do not think there isany just ground for this belief; yet he presents no reasons for * Seal arid Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, p. 14. 728 CYSTOPHORA CRISTATA HOODED SEAL. this statement.* The testimony on this point is too explicit,however, to be set aside on the mere ground of opinion. Bespectiug the size of this species, DeKay gives the totallength of the male specimen described by him as inches, of
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