Vol. 30, pp. 121-124 July 27, 1917 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



A HOODED SEAL IN FLORIDA. 



Mr. J. B. Butler, First Assistant Keeper, Cape Canaveral Light Station, 

 has given the United States National Museum the skin and skull of an 

 immature female Hooded Seal killed, during the winter of 1916, on the 

 beach at Canaveral Florida. The back and sides have the plain gray 

 type of coloration that characterizes the young; the skull has the basal 

 suture open. Mr. Butler writes that the length was 6 feet, girth 34 

 inches, and weight 200 pounds. 



As compared with northern skulls of immature Cystophora cristata this 

 specimen shows no features that can be regarded as indicating a difference 

 of race or species. The interorbital region is somewhat unusually wide, 

 and the cheekteeth, both maxillary and mandibular, are slightly 

 narrowed ; but neither peculiarity seems beyond the range of individual 

 variation. Measurements (those of a slightly younger skull from Baffin 

 Bay in parentheses): condylo-basal length 210 (193); palatal length, 103 

 (94); zygomatic breadth, 151 (140); mastoid breadth 144 (138); breadth 

 of braincase above zygomatic roots, 106 (106); depth of braincase at 

 middle, 83(76); fronto-palatal depth at posterior border of palate, 77 

 (67); nasal, 38.6 (41); greatest combined breadth of nasals, 22 (18.4); 

 least distance from orbit to front of premaxillary, 65 (55); breadth of 

 rostrum over bases of canines, 42 (37); mandible, 136 (124); maxillary 

 toothrow exclusive of incisors (alveoli), 52 (49); mandibular toothrow 

 exclusive of incisors (alveoli), 52 (48); third upper cheektooth, 6.8x4.2 

 (6.6x5.0); third lower cheektooth, 7.4x4.6 (7.0x5.4). 



The capture of this animal in Florida has a double interest: nothing of 

 the kind appears to have been recorded from any locality south of the 

 Chesapeake Bay ; and it may indicate that the occurrence of the genus 

 Cystophora in the West Indies * is less improbable than has been generally 

 supposed. —Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. 



• For a discussion of the probable history of Gray's Cystophora antillarum see Allen, 

 Hist. N. Amer. Pinnipeds, pp. 715-720. 1880. 



29— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 30. 1917. (121) 



