52 - CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 3D Ser. 



a pair from Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Krefft^ 

 mentions an example nine feet long from the coast of New 

 South Wales. McCoy ^ figures one caught at Portland, Vic- 

 toria, Australia, in 1862. Another was harpooned by Cap- 

 tain Subritzky in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in May, 

 1892.^ Boulenger^ mentions a skull from the Solomon Islands. 

 The species has been recorded from the coast of Chile by 

 Molina^ and Philippi," and from Guaymas, Mexico, by Mr. 

 Belding." 



Thus it apppears that the only record of the occurrence of 

 the Leather-back Turtle in the waters of the western coast 

 of the North American continent is the brief note by Mr. 

 Belding in the West American Scientist, which reads as 

 follows : 



" I saw at Guaymas a Leather-back Turtle (Dermatoche- 

 lys) which weighed 1,102 lbs." 



I am now able to record the capture of three specimens of 

 this turtle on the coast of California. 



Early in January of the present year I received word that 

 a large sea turtle had been caught near Santa Barbara, Cali- 

 fornia, and at once arranged to purchase it for the Academy. 

 A photograph (Plate ix) sent me at the time showed it to be 

 a fine specimen of the Leather-back Turtle. Upon its arrival 

 in San Francisco this turtle proved to be a female measuring 

 six feet and seven inches from the tip of its snout to the end 

 of its tail. Its weight was given on the bill of lading as 800 

 pounds, but this may have been estimated rather than actu- 

 ally determined. It was secured by Mr. G. W. Gourley 

 and Albert F. Stafford, about January 2, in twenty-five 

 fathoms of water in the open sea about two miles south of 

 Santa Barbara. 



Mr. Gourley has given me the following glowing account 

 of its capture : 



1 Austral. Vertebr. p. 39. 



2 Prodrom. Zool. Victoria, v. 2, 1S85, p. 2. 



3 Cheeseman, Trans. New Zealand Inst. v. 25, 1S93, p. loS. 



4 Cat. Chelon. Brit. Mus. 1889, p. 10. 



fi Essai sur I'Hist. Nat. du Chili, 1789, p. 194. 



•> Ann. Univ. Chile, v. 104, 1899, [separate pp. 3-6], pi. — . 



^ West Am. Scientist, v. 3, no. 24, 1887, p. 99. 



