Atlantic Walrus Odobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus) Length. 10 feet 6 inches. Description. Body very thick and heavy, neck short, no external ears or tail. Muzzle covered with stiff bristles, tusks 12 to 15 inches long. Hair scanty, general colour of body yellowish brown; old males much wrinkled over the back and shoulders and often nearly devoid of hair, showing numerous bare patches. Range. Arctic regions of the Atlantic, south to the shores of Hudson's Bay, Labrador and to latitude 65 degree on the Greenland coast; also islands north of Europe. On the northwest coast of North America south to Bering Sea and Norton Sound occurs the allied Pacific walrus (O. obesus Illig.), with longer tusks. The walrus is such a heavy, clumsy, ungainly beast that it has small chance of success at fishing, but its great size and strength are safeguards against the attacks of most of those flesh-eaters who find the seal easy prey; even the polar bear hesitates to come within reach of an old walrus. The Walrus gets the greater part of its food by digging with its tusks in the mud beneath the comparatively shallow water, grubbing up mollusks, and such mud-loving fish as lack sufficient activity to get out of its way. Seaweed and other marine growths are also eaten in considerable quantities, and it is probable that these, together with star-fish, sea-urchins sea-anemones and cockles, are gathered in and ground up together between the molars that crush the heaviest oyster shell without much effort. The great tusks of the walrus are useful in other ways besides raking over the sea's bottom for food. They answer the purpose of boat-hooks when the walrus desires to drag its lumbering bulk out on the ice or a shelving reef among the breakers, and are stout, if unwieldy, weapons of defence in case of attack. The walrus is often seen in large herds lounging about on the shore, one across the other like swine, all roaring and grunting together. The young are born on shore in spring or early summer, at which time the old ones often go for weeks without either eating or entering the water. When attacked they show considerable courage and aggressiveness in defending their charge, endeavouring at the same time to head off the enemy and roll their offspring into the sea, when they are said to seize them in their mouths, and diving, swim beneath the surface. Though walrus at any age are far from attractive, the old males are particularly repulsive. They become nearly devoid of hair and present a most disgusting appearance. Elliott says of them, speaking of the Pacific species: "They resemble distorted, mortified, shapeless masses of flesh; the cluster of big, swollen, watery pimples, which were of a yellow, parboiled flesh-colour, and principally located over the shoulders and around the neck, painfully suggested unwholesomeness."