178 Merriam. — A New Fur-seal from Chutdalu/pe Island. 



skulls picked up on the beach. One t)f these, the type, is an 

 adult male which has lost the teeth and lower jaw. Another is 

 a young adult female with both jaws and all the teeth. The 

 remaining two are very imperfect, lacking both the jaws and face. 

 The species seems doomed to speedy extermination, and, so 

 far as* known, no museum in the world has a single specimen. 

 It is hoped that our National Museum will be able to secure 

 complete specimens before it is too late. 



Arctocephalus townsendi sj). nov. Guadalupe Fur-seal. 



Tyi>e locality. — Guadalupe Island, off Lower California. Type No. S3617, 

 (^ ad., U. S. National Museum. Collected on the beach on west side of 

 Guadalupe May 22, 1892, by C. H. Townsend. 



Cranial characters. — Contrasted with skulls of Arctorepltalns {ausiralli^ or 

 jihiUipi) from the Galapagos Islands, skulls of .1. toimscndi ditfer in some- 

 what smaller size; much shorter rostrum; shorter nasals ; larger and 

 more freely open incisive foramina; heavier and shorter ascending 

 branches of premaxillfe, which do not push backward along the nasals 

 as in iin.^lralis ; smaller, flatter, and smoother audital bulliie; murli nar- 

 roii'L'r and more deeply excavated palate; narrower postjjalatal notch; 

 broader and heavier jugals; broader zygomatic jtrocesses of maxilliB, 

 which are expanded to form a broad floor under the anterior half of the 

 orbit; larger, broader, and more rounded anterior nares in the male, and 

 absence of sagittal crest lietween frontals- 



The most important characters are the exceedingly narrow and exca- 

 vated palate, flat audital bulla?, short and thick ascending arm of i)re- 

 maxilla, and broadly expanded zygomatic root of maxilla, forming a floor 

 under the anterior half of the orbit. There are also tooth characters : the 

 first n])[)er molar (5th molariform tooth) is mainly i)Osterior to plane of 

 anterior I'oot of zygoma; both upi)er true molars are double rooted, and 

 the last upper i)remolar is incompletely double rooted. 



In the female of tou')isendi the narrow and deeply excavated form of the 

 jialate is even more emphasized than in the male, and the postorbital 

 constriction is very m.ich narrower than in the female of aii.^lnUis. 



Mea.'iHrenieiifs of ff' Skidl of Arrt<iceph(diis tonm.ne)idi {tlie type). 



Greatest basal length (gnathion to occipital condyles) 256 



Basal length (gnathion to basion) * 243 



Basilar length of Hensel (basion to incisors) 233 



Palatine length (gnathion to postpalatal notch) 120 



Post])alatal length (postpalatal notch to l)asion) 125 



Zygomatic breadth 151 



Lateral series of teeth (canine to last molar inclusive) 88 



Distance between canines 22.5 



Distance between 3d pair of molariform teeth 22.5 



Breadth (anteroposterior) of zygomatic root of maxilla between infe- 

 rior lip of antorbital foramen and orbit 21 



