GENERAL HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. 



583 



notes a considerable amount of individual variation in different 

 skulls of this species, and finds that the characters given by 

 Dr. Gray for his Halicyon richardsi do not hold, and adds, " I 

 am therefore disposed, so far as present evidence goes, to con- 



FIG. 48. "Halicyon richardsi", Gray=Phoca vituliiia.* 



sider the so-called Halicyon richardsi simply a synonym of 

 Phoca vitulina".\ Dr. Gray, however, in his "Hand-List of 

 Seals" (1874), still retained the species, referring to it three 

 specimens (two skulls and a skeleton), from, respectively, Fra- 

 ser's River, Vancouver's Island, and Japan, and stating that 

 the skin was still unknown. He alludes to Mr. Clark's paper, 

 and calls attention to several points wherein he believes his 

 Halicyon richardsi differs from Phoca vitulina, and adds that 

 " though the skulls have some similarity, still there may be a 

 great difference in the external appearance of the animals." As 

 regards this point, it has been my good fortune to have access 

 to a considerable series of bcth skins and skulls, and I am un- 

 able to appreciate any well-marked features in either wherein 

 the so-called Halicyon richardsi differs from the common Phoca 

 vitulina of the North Atlantic. I have had, moreover, specimens 

 from the vicinity of the original localities whence the species 

 was described, as well as from points on the Pacific coast as 

 remote from each other as the Santa Barbara Islands and 

 Alaska. 



* From an electrotype of Gray's original figure in Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 

 1864, p. 28. Gray's figure in his "Catalogue of Seals and Whales" (p. 28),. 

 is apparently from the same. 



tProc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1873, p. 556. 



