VOL. XVII, PP. 159-160 OCTOBER 6, 1904 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW SEA OTTER FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 

 BY C. HART MERRIAM. 



The Biological Survey has recently secured from Geo. M. 

 McGuire, of Santa Barbara, the skeleton of an adult male sea 

 otter killed July 2, 1904, on San Miguel Island, the most wes 

 terly of the Santa Barbara or Channel Islands, California. Sea 

 otters were formerly abundant on these islands, but are now 

 exceedingly rare and believed to be rapidly approaching ex 

 tinction. 



Comparison of the skull of this specimen with a series of 

 skulls from Bering Sea (the type locality of lutris) shows the 

 California animal to be a well-marked subspecies. It may be 

 known from the following description : 



Latax lutris nereis subsp. nov. 



Type from San Miguel Island, Santa Barbara Islands, California. No. 

 133,508. Adult male. U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collec 

 tion. July 2, 1904. Geo. M. McGuire. 



Cranial characters. Skull large, broad, and high, with long and high 

 sagittal crest and swollen braincase. Compared with lutris the following 

 differences appear: Skull as a whole less flattened, braincase more swollen 

 and rounded, the sides (viewed from above), more convex and swollen, 

 especially behind the constriction ; anterior part of zygomata more broadly 

 and squarely expanded ; basioccipital forming an angle with basisphe- 

 noid ; coronoid processes sloping strongly backward ; sagittal crest much 

 higher and more decurved posteriorly ; inner cusp of large upper premo- 

 lar (pm 3) elongated along anterior part of inner lobe (instead of conical) 

 and showing a tendency to subdivide into two parts; 1st lower molar 

 broader and more broadly truncate posteriorly. 



The specimen in the flesh measured 6 feet in length. 



30-Pnoc. BIOL. Soc. WASH. VOL. XVII, 1904. (159) 



