. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 240 NATURAL HISTORY. Oil tlie back are black siiots and rings of white. The muzzle is hairy, and the hair on the rest of the body long, with thick soft nnder-wool. It visits Greenland in May and June, leaves in July, and again returns in August and September. Fubricius states that they are polygamous. This animal is one \\Lich thr- soalnrs hunt, it frequenting the outside of the ice-packs. Rink estimates the average annual catch in Greenland at 3,000. An individual will yield 120 lbs. of blubber, and as much as 200 lbs. ^ Nv of flesh. The
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 240 NATURAL HISTORY. Oil tlie back are black siiots and rings of white. The muzzle is hairy, and the hair on the rest of the body long, with thick soft nnder-wool. It visits Greenland in May and June, leaves in July, and again returns in August and September. Fubricius states that they are polygamous. This animal is one \\Lich thr- soalnrs hunt, it frequenting the outside of the ice-packs. Rink estimates the average annual catch in Greenland at 3,000. An individual will yield 120 lbs. of blubber, and as much as 200 lbs. ^ Nv of flesh. The Elephant Seal.*—This creature, like the last, has a peculiar geogi-aphical range, but is unique, inasmuch as it is found north and south of the equator. It should, however, be stated that Dr. GUI has designated the northern form by a separate name {Macrorhinus angustirostris), though the distinctive charactere have as yet not been substantiated by other naturalists. Meantime, we may be justified in re- garding them as one foim. It existed formerly in luimbei-s on the Californian coast. But it is best known as frequenting, during the beginning of this century, such islands as Juan Fernandez, the Falk- lands, New Georgia, South Shetlands, Tristan TnLTi. oi THE CUE-TED sE iL. d'Acunha, Kergueleii's Land, and, indeed, several of the islands scattered in the Antarctic Ocean. In the young and females, the characteristic feature, or so-called proboscis, is deficient, but in the old males it extends quite a foot beyond the angle of the mouth, and hence the name of Elephant Seal. The females are nine or ten feet, the males fourteen, sixteen, and even twenty feet in length. The colour varies with age from brown to leaden-grey. It seems that they bring forth their young at different seasons in the southern and northern latitudes, in the latter about Mayor June, in the former somewhat earlier. Accounts difler as to its food, some saying cuttle-fish and seaweed are its principal nutriment
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