210 SUPPLEMENT. 
tropicalis and Cystophora antillarum by Gray. Since this passage passed through the 
press Mr. J. A. Allen has published his exhaustive ‘History of North-American 
Pinnipeds’*, in which he quotes a letter from Mr. R. W. Kemp, of Key West, Florida, 
as follows:—*Some two or three years ago there were two [Seals] seen near Cape 
Florida. It was supposed that they had strayed from some of the Bahama Islands, as 
there are some few to be found in that vicinity. Iam informed by reliable parties 
that Seals are to be found in great numbers at the Anina Islands, situated between the 
Isle of Pines and Yucatan..... The Seals are said to bevery easily killed or cap- 
tured alive. They yield a great deal of oil. The skins are very large, but not easy to 
cure on account of their fatty substance.” In a second letter Mr. Kemp alludes to 
their comparative abundance on the coasts of Yucatan; and Mr. Allen observes that in 
several maps the name of “Seal Kays” is given to certain islets off the Mosquito coast, 
in about 12° 40' north latitude. 
These Seals Mr. Allen refers to ‘ Monachus? tropicalis” ~, as the only Pinniped 
which has been satisfactorily established as a native of the Gulf of Mexico 4; and 
although no specimens have yet fallen into the hands of zoologists this identification 
may be provisionally accepted. Very little is known of M. tropicalis; but according to 
Mr. Gosse’s description ||, and the imperfect type specimen in the British Museum, it 
appears to be nearly allied to Monachus albiventris (Boddaert), which is the common 
Seal of the Mediterranean and of the adjoining parts of the Western Atlantic. Its fur is 
nearly uniform black, with greyish tips; and the males are said to attain a length of 
nearly ten feet. 
With regard to the occurrence of Sea-Lions or Seals on the Pacific coast of Central 
America, Mr. Allen draws attention to the fact (which had escaped me) that Dampier 
met with “Seals” in 1686 both at the Chametly Islands, in 23° 11' north latitude, and 
at the Tres Marias, about two degrees further south. In his ‘New Voyage round the 
World’ he writes of the former group :—‘ The Bays about the Islands are sometimes 
* Miscellaneous Publications of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, No. 12 
(Washington, 1880). 
tT Op. cit. pp. 721, 722. 
+ Phoca tropicalis, Gray, Cat. Seals Brit. Mus. p. 28 (1850, deser. orig.); Monachus tropicalis, Gray, Cat. 
Seals and Whales Brit. Mus. p. 20 (1866); Handlist Seals Brit. Mus. p. 11 (1874); [Phoca] wilkianus, Gosse, 
Nat. in Jamaica, p. 307 (1851, descr. orig.). 
§ Mr. Allen has satisfactorily disposed of the claims of the only other described species, Cystophora antil- 
larum, by showing that the type specimens were not received from Mr. P. H. Gosse, as repeatedly stated by 
Gray. Mr. Gosse has himself assured Mr. Allen that the only skin delivered by him to the British Museum 
from Jamaica was that of the “ Pedro Seal,” ¢.¢. the type of Monachus tropicalis. There can be little doubt 
that Gray was in error both as to the locality and as to the collector of his specimens ; for, as Mr.Allen observes, 
“the genus Cystophora, as now known, is a subarctic type, the occurrence of which within the tropics seems 
at least very improbable” (op. cit. p. 720). 
|| ‘Naturalist in Jamaica,’ pp. 107-114. 
