An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct / by William Henry Flower and Richard Lydekker.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct / by William Henry Flower and Richard Lydekker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    158th meridians. In Europe occasional stragglers have reached the British Isles, and it was formerly abundant on the coasts of Finmark. It is rare in Iceland, but Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and the western part of the north coast of Siberia are still constant places of resort, in all of which a regular war of extermination is carried on. The North Pacific, including both sides of Behring's Strait, northern Kamschatka, Alaska, and the Pribyloflf Islands, are also the haunts of numerous Walruses, which are isolated from those of the North Atlantic by the long stretches of coast, both of Siberia and North America, where they do not occur. The Pacific Walrus appears to be as large as, if not larger than, that of the Atlantic; its tusks are longer and more slender, and curved inwards; the whiskers are smaller, and the muzzle (of the skull) relatively deeper and broader. These and certain other minor differences have induced some naturalists to consider it specifically distinct under the name of Trichechus obesus. Its habits appear to be quite similar to those of the Atlantic form. Though formerly found in immense herds, it is rapidly becoming scarce, as the methods of destruction used by the American whalers, Avho have systematically entered upon its pursuit, are far more certain and deadly than those of the native Tchuktchis, to whom, as mentioned before, the Walrus long afforded the principal means of subsistence. Fossil remains of Walruses and closely allied animals have been found in the United States, and in England, Belgium, and France, in deposits of Pliocene age. Family Phocid^. The true Seals are the most completely adapted for aquatic life of all the Pinnipeds. When on land the hind limbs are extended behind them and take no part in progression, which is effected by a series of jumping movements produced by the muscles of the trunk, in some species aided by the fore limbs only. The palms and soles of the feet are hairy. There is no pinna to the ear, and no scrotum, the testes being abdominal. The upper incisors have simple, pointed crowns, and vary in number in the different groups. All the forms have well-developed canines and f teeth of the cheek- series. In those species of which the milk-dentition is known, there are three milk molars (Fig. 275), which precede the second, third, and fourth permanent molars ; the dentition is therefore ;7 -\, m i, the first premolar ha^dng as usual no milk-predecessor. The skull has no postorbital process and no alisphenoid canal; and the angle of the mandible is not inflected. The fur is stiff and adpressed, without woolly under fur. Subfamily Phoeinse.—Incisors f. All the feet with five well- developed claAvs. The toes on the hind feet subequal, the first and