Supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the British Museum

by John Edward Gray

SUPPLEMENT
TO THE
CATALOGUE
OF
SEALS AND WHALES.

Suborder PINNIPEDIA.

Phocidæ, Catalogue of Seals & Whales, p. 1.

Pinnipedia, Illiger, Prodr. p. 138, 1811.

Pinnipedes, Gill’s Prodomus, Proceedings Essex Institute, vol. v. 1866.

Family 1. PHOCIDÆ.

Muffle hairy on the edge, and between the nostrils. Ears without any conch, merely a small aperture. Arms and legs very short; wrist very short. Toes subequal, arched, exserted. Hind feet large, fan-shaped; the inner and outer toes large and long, the three middle ones shorter. The palms and soles hairy. Claws distinct, sharp. Skull:—postorbital process none or obsolete; no alisphenoid canal; the mastoid process swollen, seeming to form part of the auditory bulla. The scapula expanded upwards and backwards towards the posterior superior angle. Testicles enclosed in the body of the animal, without any external scrotum.

Phocidæ, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1869, vol. iv. pp. 268, 342, 344; Gill, Proc. Essex Instit. 1866, p. 5; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. ii, 1870.

Sect. I. Cutting-teeth 6/4, curved, conical, and small. The palate produced nearly to the hinder molars.